American politician, statesman and physician

Ron Paul

Paul in 2011

Ronald Ernest Paul

Carolyn Wells

Ronald Ernest Paul (born August 20, 1935) is an American author, activist, physician, and retired politician who served as the U.S. representative for Texas's 22nd congressional district from 1976 to 1977 and again from 1979 to 1985, and for Texas's 14th congressional district from 1997 to 2013. On three occasions, he sought the presidency of the United States: as the Libertarian Party nominee in 1988 and as a candidate for the Republican Party in 2008 and 2012. A self-described constitutionalist, Paul is a critic of the federal government's fiscal policies, especially the existence of the Federal Reserve and the tax policy, as well as the militaryindustrial complex, the war on drugs, and the war on terror. He has also been a vocal critic of mass surveillance policies such as the USA PATRIOT Act and the NSA surveillance programs. In 1976, Paul formed the Foundation for Rational Economics and Education (FREE), and in 1985 was named the first chairman of the conservative PAC Citizens for a Sound Economy, both free-market groups focused on limited government.[3] He has been characterized as the "intellectual godfather" of the Tea Party movement, a fiscally conservative political movement started in 2009 that is largely against most matters of interventionism.[4][5]

Paul served as a flight surgeon in the U.S. Air Force from 1963 to 1968, and worked as an obstetrician-gynecologist from the 1960s to the 1980s.[6] He became the first Representative in history to serve concurrently with a child in the Senate when his son, Rand Paul, was elected to the U.S. Senate from Kentucky in 2010.[7] Paul is a Senior Fellow and Distinguished Counselor of the Mises Institute,[8] and has published a number of books and promoted the ideas of economists of the Austrian School such as Murray Rothbard, Friedrich Hayek, and Ludwig von Mises during his political campaigns. He often cites President Grover Cleveland as a preferred model of governance.[9]

After the popularity and grassroots enthusiasm of his 2008 presidential bid, Paul announced in July 2011 that he would forgo seeking another term in Congress in order to focus on his 2012 bid for the presidency.[10] Finishing in the top four with delegates in both races (while winning four states in the 2012 primaries), he refused to endorse the Republican nominations of John McCain and Mitt Romney during their respective 2008 and 2012 campaigns, and on May 14, 2012, Paul announced that he would not be competing in any other presidential primaries but that he would still compete for delegates in states where the primary elections had already been held.[11] At both the 2008 and 2012 Republican National Conventions, Paul received the second-highest number of delegates behind only McCain and Romney respectively.

In January 2013, Paul retired from Congress but remained active on college campuses, giving speeches promoting libertarian and libertarian-conservative ideas.[12][13] He also continues to provide political commentary through The Ron Paul Liberty Report, a web show he co-hosts on YouTube. Paul received one electoral vote from a Texas faithless elector in the 2016 presidential election, making him the oldest person to receive an Electoral College vote, as well as the second registered Libertarian presidential candidate in history to receive an electoral vote, after John Hospers in 1972.

Ronald Ernest Paul was born on August 20, 1935, in Pittsburgh,[14] the son of Howard Casper Paul (19041997), who ran a small dairy company, and Margaret Paul (ne Dumont; 19082001). His paternal grandfather emigrated from Germany,[15] and his paternal grandmother, a devout Christian, was a first-generation German American.[16]

As a junior at suburban Dormont High School, he was the 200-meter dash state champion.[17] Paul went to Gettysburg College, where he was a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity.[18] He graduated with a B.S. degree in Biology in 1957.[17]

Paul earned a Doctor of Medicine degree from Duke University's School of Medicine in 1961, and completed his medical internship at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit and his residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Magee-Womens Hospital in Pittsburgh.[19][20] Paul served as a flight surgeon in the United States Air Force from 1963 to 1965 and then in the United States Air National Guard from 1965 to 1968. Paul and his wife then relocated to Texas, where he began a private practice in obstetrics and gynecology.[20] One child that he helped deliver was singer Selena.[21]

While a medical resident in the 1960s, Paul was influenced by Friedrich Hayek's The Road to Serfdom, which caused him to read other publications by Ludwig von Mises and Ayn Rand. He came to know economists Hans Sennholz and Murray Rothbard well, and credits his interest in the study of economics to them.[22][23]

When President Richard Nixon "closed the gold window" by ending American participation in the Bretton Woods System, thus ending the U.S. dollar's loose association with gold[22] on August 15, 1971, Paul decided to enter politics[24] and became a Republican candidate for the United States Congress.[25]

In 1974, incumbent Robert R. Casey defeated him for the 22nd district.[20] President Gerald Ford later appointed Casey to the Federal Maritime Commission, and Paul won an April 1976 special election to the vacant office after a runoff.[26][27][28] Paul lost the next regular election to Democrat Robert Gammage by fewer than 300votes (0.2%), but defeated Gammage in a 1978 rematch, and was reelected in 1980 and 1982.[29][30][31] Gammage underestimated Paul's popularity among local mothers: "I had real difficulty down in Brazoria County, where he practiced, because he'd delivered half the babies in the county. There were only two obstetricians in the county, and the other one was his partner."[32]

Paul served in Congress three different periods: first from 1976 to 1977, after he won a special election, then from 1979 to 1985, and finally from 1997 to 2013.[33]

In his early years, Paul served on the House Banking Committee, where he blamed the Federal Reserve for inflation and spoke against the banking mismanagement that resulted in the savings and loan crisis.[15][34] Paul argued for a return to the gold standard maintained by the U.S. from 1873 to 1933, and with Senator Jesse Helms convinced the Congress to study the issue.[22] He spoke against the reinstatement of registration for the military draft in 1980, in opposition to President Jimmy Carter and the majority of his fellow Republican members of Congress.[35]

During his first term, Paul founded the Foundation for Rational Economics and Education (FREE), a non-profit think tank dedicated to promoting principles of limited government and free-market economics.[36][37] In 1984, Paul became the first chairman of the Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE),[3] a conservative political group founded by Charles and David Koch "to fight for less government, lower taxes, and less regulation." CSE started a Tea Party protest against high taxes in 2002.[38] In 2004, Citizens for a Sound Economy split into two new organizations, with Citizens for a Sound Economy being renamed as FreedomWorks, and Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation becoming Americans for Prosperity. The two organizations would become key players in the Tea Party movement from 2009 onward.

Paul proposed term-limit legislation multiple times, while himself serving four terms in the House of Representatives.[35] In 1984, he decided to retire from the House in order to run for the U.S. Senate, complaining in his House farewell address that "Special interests have replaced the concern that the Founders had for general welfare... It's difficult for one who loves true liberty and utterly detests the power of the state to come to Washington for a period of time and not leave a true cynic."[39][40] Paul lost the Republican primary to Phil Gramm, who had switched parties the previous year from Democrat to Republican. Another candidate of the senatorial primary was Henry Grover, a conservative former state legislator who had lost the 1972 gubernatorial general election to Democrat Dolph Briscoe, Jr.[41][42]

On Paul's departure from the House, his seat was assumed by former state representative Tom DeLay, who would later become House Majority Leader.[43]

Following the loss of the 1984 senate race, Paul returned to his obstetrics practice and took part in a number of other business ventures.[15][44] Along with his former congressional chief of staff, Lew Rockwell, Paul founded a for-profit enterprise, Ron Paul & Associates, Inc. (RP&A) in 1984, with Paul serving as president, Rockwell as vice president, Paul's wife Carol as secretary, and daughter Lori Pyeatt as treasurer.The company published a variety of political and investment-oriented newsletters, including Ron Paul Freedom Report and Ron Paul Survival Report,[45] and by 1993 was generating revenues in excess of $900,000.[46]

Paul also co-owned a mail-order coin dealership, Ron Paul Coins, for twelve years with Burt Blumert, who continued to operate the dealership after Paul resumed office in 1996.[47][48] Paul spoke multiple times at the American Numismatic Association's 1988 convention.[47] He worked with his Foundation for Rational Economics and Education on such projects as establishing the National Endowment for Liberty, producing the At Issue public policy series that was broadcast on the Discovery Channel and CNBC,[36] and continuing publication of newsletters.

Paul left the Republican Party in 1987 and launched a bid for the presidency running on the Libertarian Party ticket. His candidacy was seen as problematic because of the party's long support for freedom of choice on abortions. Native American activist Russell Means, Paul's rival for the nomination, emphasized that he was in favor of abortion rights.[49] In a forum held prior to the nomination, Means dismissed the greater funds raised by Paul's campaign, commenting that Means was receiving "10 times more press" than the former Congressman and was therefore "100 times more effective".[50]

On September 25, 1988, American psychologist and psychedelic advocate Timothy Leary held a fundraiser for Paul, who attended the event.[51][52][53] Journalist Debra Saunders attended and wrote about her experience.[54]

In the 1988 presidential election, Paul was on the ballot in 46 states,[55] scoring third in the popular vote with 432,179votes (0.5%).[56] Paul was kept off the ballot in Missouri, due to what the St. Louis Post-Dispatch termed a "technicality," and received votes there only when written in,[57] just as he did in North Carolina.[58]

According to Paul, his presidential campaign was about more than obtaining office; he sought to promote his libertarian ideas, often to school and university groups regardless of vote eligibility. He said, "We're just as interested in the future generation as this election. These kids will vote eventually, and maybe, just maybe, they'll go home and talk to their parents."[55]

Paul considered campaigning for president in 1992,[59] but instead chose to endorse Pat Buchanan that year, and served as an adviser to Buchanan's Republican presidential primary campaign against incumbent President George H. W. Bush.[60]

During 1996, Paul was re-elected to Congress after a difficult campaign. The Republican National Committee endorsed incumbent Greg Laughlin in the primary; Paul won with assistance from baseball pitcher, constituent, and friend Nolan Ryan, tax activist and publisher Steve Forbes[15] and conservative commentator Pat Buchanan (the latter two of whom had, had presidential campaigns that year). Paul narrowly defeated Democratic attorney Charles "Lefty" Morris in the fall election, despite Morris' criticism over controversial statements in several newsletters that Paul published.

In 1998 and 2000, Paul defeated Loy Sneary, a Democratic Bay City, Texas, rice farmer and former Matagorda County judge.[24]In the 2008 Republican primary,[61] he defeated Friendswood city councilman Chris Peden,[62] with over 70 percent of the vote[63] and ran unopposed in the general election.[64] In the 2010Republican primary, Paul defeated three opponents with 80percent of the vote.[65]

On July 12, 2011, Paul announced that he would not seek re-election to the House in order to pursue the 2012 presidential election.[66][67]

Of the 620 bills that Paul had sponsored through December 2011, over a period of more than 22 years in Congress, only one had been signed into lawa lifetime success rate of less than 0.3%.[68] The sole measure authored by Paul that was ultimately enacted allowed for a federal customhouse to be sold to a local historic preservation society (H.R. 2121 in 2009).[68]

By amending other legislation, he helped prohibit funding for national identification numbers, funding for federal teacher certification,[24] International Criminal Court jurisdiction over the U.S. military, American participation with any U.N. global tax, and surveillance of peaceful First Amendment activities by citizens.[69]

In November 1997, Paul was one of eighteen Republicans in the House to co-sponsor a resolution by Bob Barr that sought to launch an impeachment inquiry against President Bill Clinton.[70][71] The resolution did not specify any charges or allegations.[71] This was an early effort to impeach Clinton, predating the eruption of the ClintonLewinsky scandal. The eruption of that scandal would ultimately lead to a more serious effort to impeach Clinton in 1998.[72] On October 8, 1998, Paul voted in favor of legislation that was passed to open an impeachment inquiry.[73] On December 19, 1998, Paul voted in favor of all four articles of impeachment against Clinton (only two of which received the needed majority of votes).[74][75][76][77] Two days prior, on December 16, Paul had stated that he would vote to impeach based on Clinton's military attacks in the Middle East, namely the 1998 bombing of Iraq and Operation Infinite Reach, and not necessarily the Lewinsky scandal, which he described as far less serious than the "unconstitutionality of presidents waging wars".[78]

Paul was honorary chairman of, and is a member of the Republican Liberty Caucus, a political action committee that describes its goal as electing "liberty-minded, limited-government individuals".[79] He is an initiating member of the Congressional Rural Caucus, which deals with agricultural and rural issues, and the 140-member Congressional Wildlife Refuge Caucus.[80]

Paul served on the following committees and subcommittees.[81]

With the election of the 112th Congress, and a resulting GOP majority in the House, Paul became the chairman of the Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology starting in January 2011.[82]

Paul's congressional career ended on January 3, 2013 with the swearing in of the 113th Congress.

Paul formally declared his candidacy for the 2008 Republican nomination on March 12, 2007, on C-SPAN.[83] Few major politicians endorsed him, and his campaign was largely ignored by traditional media.[84] However, he attracted an intensely loyal grassroots following,[85] interacting through internet social media.[86][87][88] In May 2007, shortly after the first televised primary debates, the blogs search engine site Technorati.com listed Paul's name as the term most frequently searched for;[86] and Paul's campaign claimed that Paul had more YouTube channel subscribers than Barack Obama or any other candidate for president.[89] Paul fundraised more money than any other Republican candidate in the fourth quarter of 2007, as the primary season headed into the Iowa caucuses.[90][91]

Despite benefiting from campaign contributions from individual donors,[92] and the supporters determined to keep his name a frequent topic of discussion on the internet,[86] over the course of the campaign Paul was unable to translate the enthusiasm of his core supporters into large enough numbers of actual primary votes to unseat his rivals.

Paul came in 5th place in both the January 4 Iowa caucuses (10% of votes cast)[93] and the January 8 New Hampshire primary (8%).[94] With the exception of the Nevada caucuses January 19, where he came in 2nd (14%) behind Romney (51%), he did little better through the rest of January: Michigan 4th (6%), South Carolina 5th (4%), Florida 5th (3%). On Super Tuesday, February 5, he placed 4th in almost every state, generally taking in a mere 36% of the votes although he did better in the northern states of North Dakota (21%, 3rd place) and Montana (25%, 2nd place).[95][96]

By March, front-runner John McCain had secured enough pledged delegates to guarantee that he would win the nomination, and Romney and Huckabee had both formally withdrawn from the race. Paul, who had won no state primaries, knew that it was now impossible for him to win the nomination, as he had captured only 20[97]40 pledged delegates compared to more than 1,191 for McCain, yet he refused to concede the race and said that it was unlikely that he would ultimately endorse McCain.[98][99][100] Over the next few weeks, Paul's supporters clashed with establishment Republicans at several county and state party conventions over state party rules, the party platforms, and selection of delegates for the national convention.[101][102][103] In one instance, Nevada's state party leaders in response to Paul's supporters at the state nominating convention, resorted to prematurely shutting down the convention before selecting national delegates, with a plan to reconvene at a later date.[104][105]

On June 12, 2008, Paul withdrew his bid for the Republican nomination. He later said that one of the reasons he did not run in the general election as a third-party candidate, after losing the primaries, was that, as a concession to gain ballot access in certain states, he had signed legally binding agreements to not run a third-party campaign if he lost the primary.[106] Some of the $4 million remaining campaign contributions was invested into the political action and advocacy group called Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty.[107]

At a September 10, 2008, press conference, Paul announced his general support of four third-party candidates: Cynthia McKinney (Green Party); Bob Barr (Libertarian Party); Chuck Baldwin (Constitution Party); and Ralph Nader (independent). He said that each of them had pledged to adhere to a policy of balancing budgets, bringing the troops home, defending privacy and personal liberties, and investigating the Federal Reserve. Paul also said that under no circumstances would he be endorsing either of the two main parties' candidates (McCainRepublican Party, or ObamaDemocratic Party) because there were no real differences between them, and because neither of them, if elected, would seek to make the fundamental changes in governance that were necessary. He urged instead that, rather than contribute to the "charade" that the two-party election system had become, the voters support the third-party candidates as a protest vote, to force change in the election process.[108][109] Later that same day, Paul gave a televised interview with Nader saying much the same again.[110]

Two weeks later, "shocked and disappointed" that Bob Barr (the Libertarian nominee) had pulled out of attending the press conference at the last minute and had admonished Paul for remaining neutral and failing to say which specific candidate Paul would vote for in the general election, Paul released a statement saying that he had decided to endorse Chuck Baldwin, the Constitution Party candidate, for president.[111]

Paul withdrew from active campaigning in the last weeks of the primary election period. He received 42,426 votes, or 0.03% of the total cast, in the general election.[112]

Paul won several early straw polls for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination[113] and formed an official exploratory committee in late April 2011.[114][115] He participated in the first Republican presidential debate on May 5, 2011[116] and on May 13, 2011 formally announced his candidacy in an interview on ABC's Good Morning America.[117] He placed second in the 2011 Ames Straw Poll, missing first by 0.9%.[118] Paul indicated in a June 2011 interview that if nominated, he would consider former New Jersey Superior Court judge Andrew Napolitano as his running mate.[119]

In December 2011, with Paul's increased support, the controversy over racist and homophobic statements in several Ron Paul newsletters in the 1980s and early 1990s once again gained media attention.[120] During this time Paul supporters asserted that he was continually ignored by the media despite his significant support, citing examples of where television news shows would fail to mention Paul in discussions of the Republican presidential hopefuls even when he was polling second.[121][122][123]

Ron Paul's presidential campaign managers Jesse Benton, John Tate and Demetri Kesari were all found guilty of paying former Iowa State Senator Kent Sorenson $73,000 to switch his support from Rep. Michele Bachmann to Paul.[124] In court papers filed in August 2014, Sorenson said that he had been paid by both presidential campaigns for his endorsement and pled guilty to criminal charges stemming from the incident.[125]

Paul came in third in the Iowa Republican Caucus held on January 3, 2012. Out of a turnout of 121,503 votes, Paul took 26,036 (21%) of the certified votes. Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney finished in a virtual tie for first place with 25% each,[126] although Ron Paul had ultimately won[127] Iowa at the Republican National Convention gathering 22 delegates to Mitt Romney's 5. In the New Hampshire primary held on January 10, 2012, Paul received 23% of the votes and came in second after Romney's 39%.[128]

Paul's results then declined, despite the withdrawal of candidates Michele Bachmann, Jon Huntsman and Rick Perry. He had fourth-place finishes in the next two primaries, on January 21 in South Carolina (with 13% of the vote)[129] and on January 31 in Florida (where he received 7% of the vote).[130][131][132]

On February 4, Paul finished third in Nevada with 18.8% of the vote.[133] Three non-binding primaries were held on February 7; Paul took 3rd place in Colorado[134] and Missouri[135] with 13% and 12% of the vote, respectively. He fared better in Minnesota[136] with 27%, finishing second to Rick Santorum.

On May 14, Paul's campaign announced that due to lack of funds (though despite financial backing from financiers Peter Thiel and Mark Spitznagel)[137] he would no longer actively campaign for votes in the 11 remaining primary states, including Texas and California, that had not yet voted.[11][138] He would, however, continue to seek to win delegates for the national party convention in the states that had already voted.

In June, a group of 132 supporters of Paul, demanding the freedom as delegates to the upcoming Republican party national convention to cast votes for Paul, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the Republican National Committee and 55 state and territorial Republican party organizations for allegedly coercing delegates to choose Mitt Romney as the party's presidential nominee.[139] The suit alleged that there had been "a systematic campaign of election fraud at state conventions," employing rigging of voting machines, ballot stuffing, and falsification of ballot totals. The suit further pointed to incidents at state conventions, including acts of violence and changes in procedural rules, allegedly intended to deny participation of Paul supporters in the party decision-making and to prevent votes from being cast for Paul. An attorney representing the complainants said that Paul campaign advisor Doug Wead had voiced support for the legal action.[139] Paul himself told CNN that although the lawsuit was not a part of his campaign's strategy and that he had not been advising his supporters to sue, he was not going to tell his supporters not to sue, if they had a legitimate argument. "If they're not following the rules, you have a right to stand up for the rules. I think for the most part these winning caucuses that we've been involved in we have followed the rules. And the other side has at times not followed the rules."[140]

Paul declined to speak at the Republican National Convention as a matter of principle, saying that the convention planners had demanded that his remarks be vetted by the Romney campaign and that he make an unqualified endorsement of Romney.[141] Paul had felt that "It wouldn't be my speech... That would undo everything I've done in the last 30 years. I don't fully endorse him for president."[141] Many of Paul's supporters and delegates walked out of the convention in protest over rules adopted by the convention that reduced their delegate count and that would make it harder for non-establishment candidates to win the party's nomination in future elections.[142] Supporters and media commentators had noted that the delegations from states where Paul had had the most support were given the worst seats in the convention hall, while delegations from regions with no electoral votes, such as the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, and Puerto Rico, were given prime seats at the front.[143][144]

As in 2008, in 2012 Paul ultimately refused to endorse the ticket selected by the Republican Party. He said that there was no essential difference between Romney and his Democratic opponent, President Obama, on the most critical policies: "I've been in this business a long time and believe me there is essentially no difference from one administration to another no matter what the platforms... The foreign policy stays the same, the monetary policy stays the same, there's no proposal for any real cuts and both parties support it."[145] Paul received 26,204 write-in votes, or 0.02% of the total cast in the election.[146]

Throughout his entire tenure in Congress, Paul has represented his district as a member of the Republican Party. However, he has frequently taken positions in direct opposition to the other members and the leadership of the party, and he has sometimes publicly questioned whether he really belonged in the party.

Paul voted for Dwight D. Eisenhower for president in 1956 when he was 21 years old.[147] He had been a lifelong supporter of the Republican Party by the time he entered politics in the mid-1970s.[147] He was one of the first elected officials in the nation to support Ronald Reagan's presidential campaign,[148] and he actively campaigned for Reagan in 1976 and 1980.[149] After Reagan's election in 1980, Paul quickly became disillusioned with the Reagan administration's policies. He later recalled being the only Republican to vote against Reagan budget proposals in 1981,[150][151] aghast that "in 1977, Jimmy Carter proposed a budget with a $38 billion deficit, and every Republican in the House voted against it. In 1981, Reagan proposed a budget with a $45 billion deficitwhich turned out to be $113 billionand Republicans were cheering his great victory. They were living in a storybook land."[148] He expressed his disgust with the political culture of both major parties in a speech delivered in 1984 upon resigning from the House of Representatives to prepare for a (failed) run for the Senate, and he eventually apologized to his libertarian friends for having supported Reagan.[150]

By 1987, Paul was ready to sever all ties to the Republican Party, as he explained in a blistering resignation letter: "Since [1981] Ronald Reagan and the Republican Party have given us skyrocketing deficits, and astoundingly a doubled national debt. How is it that the party of balanced budgets, with control of the White House and Senate, accumulated red ink greater than all previous administrations put together? ... There is no credibility left for the Republican Party as a force to reduce the size of government. That is the message of the Reagan years."[147][149] A month later he announced he would seek the 1988 Libertarian Party nomination for president.

During the 1988 campaign, Paul called Reagan "a dramatic failure"[149] and complained that "Reagan's record is disgraceful. He starts wars, breaks the law, supplies terrorists with guns made at taxpayers' expense and lies about it to the American people."[152] Paul predicted that "the Republicans are on their way out as a major party,"[150] and he said that, although registered as a Republican, he had always been a libertarian at heart.[150][151]

Paul returned to his private medical practice and managing several business ventures after losing the 1988 election; but by 1996, he was ready to return to politics, this time running on the Republican Party ticket again. He said that he had never read the entire Libertarian platform when he ran for president as a Libertarian in 1988, and that "I worked for the Libertarians on my terms, not theirs."[153] He added that in terms of a political label he preferred to call himself "a constitutionalist. In Congress I took an oath to uphold the Constitution, not the (Republican) platform."[153]

When he lost the Republican Party presidential primary election in 2008, Paul criticized the two major political parties, saying that there was no real difference between the parties and that neither of them truly intended to challenge the status quo. He refused to endorse the Republican Party's nominee for president, John McCain, and lent his support to third-party candidates instead.[154][155]

In the 2012 presidential campaign, during which he acknowledged it was unlikely that he would win the Republican Party nomination,[156] Paul again asserted that he was participating in the Republican Party on his own terms, trying to persuade the rest of the party to move toward his positions rather than joining in with theirs.[157] He expressed doubt that he would support any of his rivals should they win the nomination, warning that, "If the policies of the Republican Party are the same as the Democrat Party and they don't want to change anything on foreign policy, they don't want to cut anything, they don't want to audit the Fed and find out about monetary policy, they don't want to have actual change in government, that is a problem for me."[158] On that same theme he said in another interview, "I would be reluctant to jump on board and tell all of the supporters that have given me trust and money that all of a sudden, I'd say, [all] we've done is for naught. So, let's support anybody at all ... even if they disagree with everything that we do."[159]

Paul has been described as conservative and libertarian.[15] According to University of Georgia political scientist Keith Poole, Paul had the most conservative voting record of any member of Congress from 1937 to 2002,[160][161] and is the most conservative of the candidates that had sought the 2012 Republican nomination for president.[162] Other analyses have judged Paul much more moderate. The National Journal, for instance, rated Paul only the 145th-most-conservative member of the House of Representatives (out of 435) based on votes cast in 2010.[163][164] The National Journal's analysis gave Paul a 2011 composite ideological rating of 54% liberal and 46% conservative.[165] Paul says that he does not use the term "conservative" to describe himself very often and does not consider himself politically conservative "at all."[23]

The foundation of Paul's political philosophy is the conviction that "the proper role for government in America is to provide national defense, a court system for civil disputes, a criminal justice system for acts of force and fraud, and little else."[166]

He has been nicknamed "Dr. No," reflecting both his medical degree and his insistence that he will "never vote for legislation unless the proposed measure is expressly authorized by the Constitution."[24][34]

In 2008, Paul spoke at the John Birch Society's 50th-anniversary celebration.[167][168]

An anti-war activist, Paul promotes a noninterventionist foreign policy and an end to American imperialism.[169] He advocates withdrawal from the United Nations and from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, for reasons of maintaining strong national sovereignty.[170]

He voted for the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists in response to the September 11 attacks, but suggested war alternatives such as authorizing the president to grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal targeting specific terrorists, in lieu of launching an Afghanistan invasion. Paul acknowledged his vote for the authorization of force was a difficult one.[23]

An opponent of the Iraq War as well, and potential war with Iran, he has criticized neoconservatism and U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, arguing that both inadvertently cause terrorist reprisals against Americans, such as the 9/11 attacks. Paul has stated that "Israel is our close friend" and that it is not the place of the United States to "dictate how Israel runs her affairs". Paul, a critic of the US's implementation of most foreign aid, said in 2011 that "it was our foreign aid that helped Mubarak retain power to repress his people in the first place."[171]

Following the Orange Revolution protests in 2004, which led to Viktor Yanukovych's ouster from government, Paul accused the National Endowment for Democracy of having staged a coup in Ukraine.[172][173] Paul supported the 2014 Crimean status referendum,[174] for which he has been called a friend of Putin,[175] and has objected to sanctions during the Russo-Ukrainian War and foreign aid to Ukraine.[176]

Paul endorses constitutional rights, such as the right to keep and bear arms, and habeas corpus for political detainees. He was one of only three Republicans in the House to vote against the Patriot Act. Paul opposes federal use of torture, presidential autonomy, a national identification card, warrantless domestic surveillance, and the draft. He has also called for shutting down the TSA and moving matters of airline security to private businesses.[177] Paul believes that the notion of the separation of church and state is currently misused by the court system: "In case after case, the Supreme Court has used the infamous 'separation of church and state' metaphor to uphold court decisions that allow the federal government to intrude upon and deprive citizens of their religious liberty."[178]

Sometime within the same month but much after the event of authorities executing a lock-down in sequence to the April 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, Paul commented on the tactics used by governing forces into a harsh criticism that he has written as a "military-style occupation of an American city".[13]

Paul is a proponent of Austrian School economics; he has authored six books on the subject, and displayed pictures of Austrian School economists Friedrich Hayek, Murray Rothbard, and Ludwig von Mises (as well as of President Grover Cleveland and Chicago School economist Milton Friedman)[179] on his office wall. He regularly voted against almost all proposals for new government spending, initiatives, or taxes;[180] he cast two thirds of all the lone negative votes in the House during a 19951997 period.[24]

He pledged never to raise taxes[181] and states he has never voted to approve a budget deficit. Paul believes that the country could abolish the individual income tax by scaling back federal spending to its fiscal year 2000 levels;[182][183] financing government operations would be primarily by excise taxes and non-protectionist tariffs. He endorses eliminating most federal government agencies, terming them unnecessary bureaucracies.

On April 15, 2011, Paul was one of four Republican members of Congress to vote against Rep. Paul Ryan's budget proposal, known as "The Path to Prosperity."[184]

Paul has consistently warned of hyperinflation and called for a return to the gold standard as far back as 1981.[185][186] From 1999 until his retirement, he introduced bills into each Congress seeking to eliminate the Federal Reserve System in a single year,[187][188][189] a position he outlines in his 2009 book End the Fed.

Paul is a strong proponent of free trade, once saying that "free trade is an answer to a lot of conflicts around the world".[190] He rejects membership in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the World Trade Organization as "managed trade".[191] He has also advocated for open trade and better relations with the country of Cuba. In addition, Paul argued in 2012 that "as well intentioned as sanctions are, they almost always backfire and hurt the people."[190]

He has described his interest in ending wars and lowering military spending as partly an "economic issue", adding, "We'd save a lot of money by not being engaged [in overseas conflict] like this."[192]

As a free-market environmentalist, he asserts private property rights in relation to environmental protection and pollution prevention.[193] He rejects the scientific consensus on climate change and has claimed that global warming is a hoax in a 2009 Fox Business interview.[194]

Paul has stated that "The government shouldn't be in the medical business." He pushes to eliminate federal involvement with and management of health care, which he argues would allow prices to decrease due to the fundamental dynamics of a free market.[195] He also opposes federal government influenza inoculation programs.[196]

Paul endorses increased border security and opposes welfare for illegal immigrants, birthright citizenship and amnesty;[197] he voted for the Secure Fence Act of 2006. However, in a 2019 interview, Paul expressed disapproval of President Donald Trump's proposed border wall along the southern US border, saying, "I don't like walls. I don't want to wall people in and wall people out."[198]

He is an outspoken proponent of increased ballot access for third-party candidates.[199] He has sought to repeal the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, also known as the Motor Voter law.[200]

Paul has stated that secession from the United States "is a deeply American principle" and that "If the possibility of secession is completely off the table there is nothing to stop the federal government from continuing to encroach on our liberties and no recourse for those who are sick and tired of it."[201] Paul wrote the remarks in a post on his Congressional website in one of his final public statements as a member of Congress, noting that many petitions had been submitted to the White House calling for secession in the wake of the November 2012 election.[202]

Citing the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, Paul advocates states' rights to decide how to regulate social matters not cited directly by the Constitution. He opposes federal regulation of such matters as the death penalty[203] (although he opposes capital punishment),[204] of education,[205] of drugs, and of marriage. Regarding same-sex marriage, he stated in 2011 that "My personal opinion is government shouldn't be involved. The whole country would be better off if individuals made those decisions and it was a private matter."[206] He endorsed revising the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy to concern mainly disruptive sexual behavior (whether heterosexual or homosexual).[207] His abortion-related legislation, such as the Sanctity of Life Act in 2005, is intended to negate Roe v. Wade and to get "the federal government completely out of the business of regulating state matters."[208] Paul says his years as an obstetrician led him to believe that life begins at conception.[209][210]

Paul opposes the federal War on Drugs,[211] and advocates that states should decide whether to regulate or deregulate drugs such as medical and recreational marijuana, and other substances.[212][213] In 2001, he joined with Democratic Congressman Barney Frank in helping pass the States' Rights to Medical Marijuana Act (H.R. 2592), an attempt to stop the federal government from preempting states' medical marijuana laws.[214]

Paul again partnered with Frank in support of online gambling rights. In 2006, both strongly opposed H.R. 4777, the Internet Gambling Prohibition and Enforcement Act, and H.R. 4411, the Goodlatte-Leach Internet Gambling Prohibition Act.[215][216]

Paul was critical of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, arguing that it sanctioned federal interference in the labor market and did not improve race relations. He once remarked: "The Civil Rights Act of 1964 not only violated the Constitution and reduced individual liberty; it also failed to achieve its stated goals of promoting racial harmony and a color-blind society".[217] Paul opposes affirmative action.[218]

Paul says that he does not have a "final answer" on whether bitcoin will replace the dollar, but says that it should be legal. He attends bitcoin and cryptocurrency conferences because, "I think the world's a disaster, the financial system is coming apart, and the government money is terrible, and people ought to have a right to be able to develop something."[23]

In April 2013, Paul founded the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, a foreign policy think tank that seeks to promote his non-interventionist views.[219] The institute is part of his larger foundation Foundation for Rational Economics and Education. In the same month, he began to offer the Ron Paul Curriculum, a homeschool online curriculum developed by Gary North and taught from a "free market and Christian" perspective.[220]

In June 2013, Paul criticized the NSA surveillance program and praised Edward Snowden for having performed a "great service to the American people by exposing the truth about what our government is doing in secret".[221]

In April 2015, Paul began appearing in infomercials for Stansberry & Associates Investment Research, warning about an upcoming financial meltdown as a result of the imminent crash of the world's currencies.[222][223] In March 2017, Paul predicted a market downturn again.[224]

Paul was a critic of Donald Trump's plans to increase the number of military personnel in Afghanistan. In August 2017, he said that Americans don't see Afghanistan as a threat to their personal security and being aggressive in foreign policy only loses Trump some of his support base.[citation needed][225] Paul has also called for Trump to bring American troops back from Syria in April 2018, on the grounds that the threat from ISIS has been eliminated.[226] He continues to voice his disagreements regarding foreign policy, and more recently, regarding the events involving America and Iran.[227][228]

In 2013, Paul established the Ron Paul Channel, an Internet broadcast. Its slogan was "Turn Off Your TV. Turn On the Truth."[229][230] In 2015, Ron Paul ended all relationships with the Ron Paul Channel in order to start a new Internet program called The Ron Paul Liberty Report,[231] which he co-hosts with Daniel McAdams.

Paul endorsed his son, Senator Rand Paul, in the 2016 Republican primary and campaigned for him in Iowa.[232] After his son dropped out, Paul had said that no Republican or Democratic candidate even came close to holding libertarian views.[233] Paul expressed disappointment in former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson's Libertarian Party nomination for President, and told independent voters that Green Party nominee Jill Stein was a better candidate for those who "lean towards progressivism and liberalism", while emphasizing that he was not endorsing her.[234]

Paul received one electoral vote from a Texas faithless elector, South Texas College political science professor William Greene (who had been pledged to Donald Trump),[235] in the 2016 presidential election,[236][237] making Paul the oldest person ever to receive an electoral vote, and the second Libertarian Party member to receive an electoral vote, after John Hospers in 1972.

In the 2020 Democratic primary, Paul described Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard as "the most intelligent" and "the very, very best" option of the Democratic candidates, primarily for her views on foreign policy, adding that "We probably wouldn't agree with too much on economics."[192]

Beginning in 1978, for more than two decades Paul and his associates published a number of political and investment-oriented newsletters bearing his name (Dr. Ron Paul's Freedom Report, The Ron Paul Survival Report, the Ron Paul Investment Letter, and the Ron Paul Political Report).[45]

A number of the newsletters, particularly in the period between 1988 and 1994 when Paul was no longer in Congress, contained racist material that proved controversial when he returned to Congress and race for president. Topics included conspiracy theories, anti-government militia movements, and race wars.[238] During Paul's 1996 congressional election campaign, and his 2008 and 2012 presidential primary campaigns, critics charged that some of the passages reflected racism, anti-Semitism, and homophobia.[24][239][240][241]

In a 1996 interview, Paul did not deny writing the newsletters and defended some of their contents, but specified that he opposes racism.[242][243][244] In March 2001, Paul said he did not write the commentaries, but stopped short of denying authorship in 1996 because his campaign advisers had thought it would be too confusing and that he had to live with the material published under his name.[245][246] Half a dozen libertarian activists, including some still closely associated with Paul, pointed to Lew Rockwell as the primary ghostwriter of the newsletters. Rockwell denied responsibility for the content.[45] In 2011, Paul's spokesperson Jesse Benton said Paul had "taken moral responsibility because they appeared under his name and slipped through under his watch."[247]

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Ron Paul - Wikipedia

Harness Racing This Week: Paul Revere Pace, Plainridge Park, Plainville, Mass.

Schedule of events:Plainridge Park is proud to welcome the Grand Circuit back to Massachusetts on Thursday (April 28) as it hosts the first edition of the$100,000 Paul Revere Pace. The stake is for 3-year-old pacing colts and geldings and is the first event to be held in 2022 for that division

Complete entries for the race can be found by clicking on thislink.

Last Time: Funatthebeach N, sent off at 15-1, sat off a serious battle for the lead, got into contention by following favored Leonidas A, and outkicked that rival when the chips were down to take a wild $549,000 MGM Borgata Pacing Series final on Monday night (April 25) at Yonkers Raceway in 1:50.1.

Tattoo Artist (Dexter Dunn), Jacks Legend N (Matt Kakaley), and defending series champion This Is The Plan (Yannick Gingras) all left hard from posts one, three, and five, respectively, with Jacks Legend N getting past Tattoo Artist before the :26.3 opening quarter. This Is The Plan was up to immediately confront Jacks Legend N, and although Kakaley took a big hold of Jacks Legend N, This Is The Plan was unable to clear, and Kakaley elected to leave him out starting on the second turn.

While that was going on up front, Leonidas A (Austin Siegelman) had been able to land in fifth ahead of Funatthebeach N (Jordan Stratton), and they would both vacate the pylons as Jacks Legend N and This Is The Plan continued their slugfest to a :53.4 half. Leonidas A would then go three-wide on the third turn to take up the chase, while Funatthebeach N remained two-wide on the bend and then followed Leonidas A after they entered the backstretch for the final time.

Leonidas A surged up on the outside to take command before the 1:21.4 three-quarters, then crossed down to the rail heading into the last turn. Funatthebeach N was also able to get into a two-wide position after three-quarters as Jacks Legend N backed away, boxing in Tattoo Artist and taking him out of contention. Also facing traffic woes was Semi Tough (Joe Bongiorno), who was caught two-wide behind the tiring This Is The Plan.

With all their rivals either spent or caught in compromising spots, Leonidas A and Funatthebeach N would face off in a match race on the far turn and into the lane. Although Leonidas A had the lead on the bend, it was clear that Funatthebeach N was going the better of the two coming into the stretch, and it would be Funatthebeach N going on to score by a length over Leonidas A. Semi Tough finally shook loose and was able to rally for third.

Jeff Gillis and Mark Ford are the winning trainer-owner combination behind Funatthebeach N, an 8-year-old Somebeachsomewhere gelding who they claimed for $75,000 on Sept. 6 of last year at Yonkers. This was Funatthebeach Ns 29th lifetime tally, and he now shows a bankroll of $732,039. He paid $33.20 to win.

Drama Act was the leading point-earner in the Blue Chip Matchmaker Series preliminary rounds, and she backed that up by winning the $381,000 final on April 25 at Yonkers in a close finish with Racine Bell. The time of the mile was 1:51.2.

Driver George Brennan fired Drama Act out from the pole position and led early, but Jason Bartlett wanted the front with favored Racine Bell, and he moved her from the pocket to the point prior to the :27.2 opening quarter. Racine Bell then backed down the half to just :56, with Easy To Please (Jordan Stratton) beginning a first-over move out of third past that marker. The tempo increased noticeably after Easy To Please tipped out, and while she was unable to get alongside Racine Bell, the three-quarters would go on the board in 1:23.4.

Racine Bell still had command around the last turn and into the lane after Easy To Pleases bid stalled out, but Bartlett had to keep working on his charge throughout that period, and then she drifted out in the stretch, allowing Drama Act to come through without ever having to leave the pylons. Racine Bell did dig in and looked like she might be able to hold on, but Drama Act surged in time and got up to defeat the pace-setter by a nose. Easy To Please was third.

A 5-year-old daughter ofWell Said, Drama Act is trained by Ron Burke for owner-breeder The OK Corral. This was her 26th victory from 46 career starts, and she has now earned $693,112. She was the 3-1 second choice and paid $8.10 to win.

Complete recaps of all the races are available at the Grand Circuitwebsite.

Grand Circuit Standings:In 2022, the Grand Circuit leaders in three categories (driver, trainer and owner) will once again be tracked on a points system (20-10-5 for the top three finishers in divisions/finals and 10-5-2 for the top three finishers in eliminations/legs). Winbak Farms is the sponsor for the 2022 Grand Circuit awards.

Here are the leaders (through the races on 4-25-22):

Drivers:1. Jordan Stratton 126; 2. Jason Bartlett 106; 3. George Brennan 90; 4. Dexter Dunn 83; 5 Yannick Gingras 65.

Trainers:1. Ron Burke 131; 2. Jeff Gillis 54; 3. Erv Miller 53; 4t. Cory Stratton 50; 4t. Sheena Cohen 50.

Owners:1. The OK Corral 57; 2. Jesmeral Stable 50; 3. Mark Ford 40; 4. Team Tritton Inc. 30; 5t. Karen Hauver 27; 5t. Ricky Bucci 27.

Looking ahead:Grand Circuit action next week will be held at Freehold Raceway, Yonkers Raceway and The Meadowlands. Freehold will host the Dexter Cup for 3-year-old male trotters and the Lady Suffolk for 3-year-old female trotters; Yonkers will hold Reynolds Memorial divisions for 3-year-old male and female pacers; and The Meadowlands will host the first round in the Graduate Series for 4-year-old open pacers and trotters and the Miss Versatility Series for older trotting mares.

by Paul Ramlow, for the Grand Circuit

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$100000 Paul Revere Pace is lone Grand Circuit race - Harnesslink

War is a racket, wrote US Maj. General Smedley Butler in 1935. He explained: A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.

Gen. Butlers observation describes the US/NATO response to the Ukraine war perfectly.

The propaganda continues to portray the war in Ukraine as that of an unprovoked Goliath out todecimate an innocent David unless we in the US and NATO contribute massive amounts of military equipment to Ukraine to defeat Russia. As is always the case with propaganda, this version of events is manipulated to bring an emotional response to the benefit of special interests.

One group of special interests profiting massively on the war is the US military-industrial complex. Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes recently told a meeting of shareholders that, Everything that s being shipped into Ukraine today, of course, is coming out of stockpiles, either at DOD or from our NATO allies, and thats all great news. Eventually well have to replenish it and we will see a benefit to the business.

He wasnt lying. Raytheon, along with Lockheed Martin and countless other weapons manufacturers are enjoying a windfall they have not seen in years. The US has committed more than three billion dollars in military aid to Ukraine. They call it aid, but it is actually corporate welfare: Washington sending billions to arms manufacturers for weapons sent overseas.

By many accounts these shipments of weapons like the Javelin anti-tank missile (jointly manufactured by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin) are getting blown up as soon as they arrive in Ukraine. This doesnt bother Raytheon at all. The more weapons blown up by Russia in Ukraine, the more new orders come from the Pentagon.

Former Warsaw Pact countries now members of NATO are in on the scam as well. Theyve discovered how to dispose of their 30-year-old Soviet-made weapons and receive modern replacements from the US and other western NATO countries.

While many who sympathize with Ukraine are cheering, this multi-billion dollar weapons package will make little difference. As former US Marine intelligence officer Scott Ritter said on the Ron Paul Liberty Report last week, I can say with absolute certainty that even if this aid makes it to the battlefield, it will have zero impact on the battle. And Joe Biden knows it.

What we do see is that Russians are capturing modern US and NATO weapons by the ton and even using them to kill more Ukrainians. What irony. Also, what kinds of opportunities will be provided to terrorists, with thousands of tons of deadly high-tech weapons floating around Europe? Washington has admitted that it has no way of tracking the weapons it is sending to Ukraine and no way to keep them out of the hands of the bad guys.

War is a racket, to be sure. The US has been meddling in Ukraine since the end of the Cold War, going so far as overthrowing the government in 2014 and planting the seeds of the war we are witnessing today. The only way out of a hole is to stop digging. Dont expect that any time soon. War is too profitable.

This article was published by RonPaul Institute.

More here:

Ron Paul: The Ukraine War Is A Racket OpEd - Eurasia Review

Ronald William Knight was born at St. Marys Hospital in Long Beach, CA to Loretta Alice Krause and William Paul Knight on March 14, 1940, and died on November 22, 2021, at the age of 81 in Klamath Falls, OR. Ronald was the only son to Loretta and was raised in Ritzville, WA by his grandfather and grandmother, Wilhelm (William) Krause Jr. and Margaretha (Margaret) Schulz.

Ronald was married three times. His first wife, Barbara Joan Aetzel, gave him two sons, Brent Alden Knight, and William Ryan Knight. His last 15 years were spent with his beloved wife, Carrie Knight.

Ron attended Washington State University after graduating Ritzville High School in the class of 1959 and graduated with a business degree from the University of Washington, falling just short of his MBA. He spent his entire career working for the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 302, starting in the field working as an oiler, maintaining equipment, and then advancing to the office as the apprenticeship coordinator, later a business agent, and eventually business manager. Ron retired in 1998 at the age of 58 and spent extended periods of time traveling across the U.S. in his RVs.

Ron was known for his sense of humor, his work ethic and commitment to his job and the people he loved and served, his appreciation for family and a love of travel. Ron was a devoted Husky fan, loved to fish and dedicated his life to Christ.

Ron fought frontal temporal dementia, Parkinsons and diabetes during the final years of his life and passed away peacefully in his sleep. He was loved my many and will be missed greatly.

Ron is survived by his wife Carrie Knight and sons Brent and Ryan, four grandchildren, Payton, Rylie, Mason and Emerson, as well as an extended family and friends. A celebration of life will be held in the spring in Ritzville to honor and remember Ron. In lieu of flowers or gifts, the family asks that contributions be made to Alzheimers research.

Continue reading here:

Ronald William Knight: Devoted Husky fan loved to fish and to travel - My Edmonds News

Set in 1973 and named for a beloved SoCal record chain, Licorice Pizza brings writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson nearly full circle back to the neighborhoods where he grew up back to the disco-colored Wonderland where Boogie Nights took place and the decade when the indie auteur was born.

Fans of Andersons filmography shouldnt be the slightest bit surprised to see him once again finding colorful characters in the outer folds of Los Angeles satellite suburbs: He did it before with Punch-Drunk Love (giving Adam Sandler his juiciest role to date) and Magnolia (where the same went for Tom Cruise), always returning to the question of What Do Kids Know? as the imaginary quiz show in that film was called.

Licorice Pizza is one of the rare Anderson movies to be missing a father figure the directors own was an Ohio TV host who went on to become the voice of ABC once he relocated to California, and dads (or parental proxies) have played an important role in every one of his movies till now. With every film, Anderson elevates prodigal sons and monster patriarchs to mythic status, whether its an endearingly naive porn performer like Dirk Diggler (Boogie Nights) or a self-made oil tycoon such as Daniel Plainview (There Will Be Blood). And every time, he surrounds them with surrogate families, lifting from his idol Robert Altman the idea that no character in an ensemble is minor, no matter how brief the appearance.

Altmans influence can be felt in nearly all Andersons films, though the younger helmer brings to that equation a technical virtuosity and near-Kubrickian discipline that set his work apart, rewarding multiple viewings and all but demanding debate when the lights come up. Not all the movies are masterpieces (impressive though it may be, The Master has more than its share of flaws, for example), and good luck finding two people who agree on their favorite. So read on for Variety chief film critic Peter Debruges personal ranking ofAndersons oeuvre. You might be surprised by the one he holds head and shoulders above the rest.

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Paul Thomas Anderson Films Ranked From Worst to Best - Variety

WASHINGTON Retired folk singer-songwriter Arlo Guthrie is getting married again, but not before he celebrates a quiet Thanksgiving in the Berkshires.

Arlo Guthrie and longtime girlfriend Marti Ladd plan to marry in Florida.

He announced on Facebook that he would be spending the holiday at his home in Washington with only his "bride-to-be," his longtime girlfriend, Marti Ladd.

"Its not every year I get married," he wrote. "So this year instead of getting together with large groups of family and friends, my bride-to-be and I are going to celebrate Thanksgiving alone at a candlelight dinner to be thankful for each other. I wish everyone a joyful holiday however youre able to celebrate."

In October, Guthrie told a local newspaper in Sebastian, Fla., that he would marry Ladd. He said he had been with her for almost a decade, a relationship that blossomed after the death of his first wife, Jackie Guthrie.

We first met about 20 years ago when I went to Woodstock, New York with my wife Jackie to do a film," Guthrie told Sebastian Daily. "We were put up at The Wild Rose Inn. Marti Ladd was the owner/operator. Our friendship developed into a relationship after Jackie passed away in 2012. In September 2016, Marti sold the Inn and moved in with me in my home in Sebastian."

Guthrie has taken refuge at his Washington home throughout the coronavirus pandemic, according to Sebastian Daily, but he plans to get married in Florida.

Not familiar with Arlo Guthrie? Here's what you need to know about the Berkshires homeowner.

Guthrie is a political activist and folk singer-songwriter from Brooklyn. He's best known for "Alice's Restaurant Massacree", a satirical talking blues song from 1967. In the protest song, Guthrie describes his own arrest and conviction for dumping trash illegally during Thanksgiving break a conviction that later got him out of the draft for the Vietnam War.

The song, which is more than 18 minutes long, propelled Guthrie's career, and he went on to play at venues such as Carnegie Hall and the Woodstock Festival. Throughout his time touring, Guthrie played with numerous musicians, from Pete Seeger to Emmylou Harris to Willie Nelson. In 2020, he announced his retirement from touring.

"Alice's Restaurant" became a popular counterculture song. Guthrie himself endorsed resisting the draft, though he would later describe the song not as anti-war so much as anti-stupidity.

In his early years of performing, his political positions were largely anti-war, anti-Nixon and pro-drugs. He then registered Republican in 2008 and supported Rep. Ron Paul of Texas for the 2008 Republican Party nomination.

During the 2016 election he identified himself as an independent. Later on in the Trump presidency he declared he was "not a Republican" and said he disagreed with Trump policies, especially on immigration.

"I left the party years ago and do not identify myself with either party these days," he wrote to Urban Milwaukee in 2018. "I strongly urge my fellow Americans to stop the current trend of guilt by association, and look beyond the party names and affiliations, and work for candidates whose policies are more closely aligned with their own, whatever they may be.

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Love in the Berkshires: Arlo Guthrie celebrates Thanksgiving in Washington with his 'bride-to-be' - Berkshire Eagle

WMC auxiliary having $5

jewelry, accessories sale

WEIRTON The Weirton Medical Center Auxiliary will hold a $5 jewelry and accessories sale from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday and from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday 3 in the medical center atrium located on Colliers Way.

Masks are required.

SHS Alumni Association

scheduled to meet Tuesday

STEUBENVILLE The Steubenville High School Alumni Association will meet on Tuesday at Scaffidis Restaurant and Tavern in Steubenville.

The meeting will begin at 6 p.m.

Concert scheduled Dec. 4 at Weirton Seventh Day Adventist

WEIRTON Laura Williams will perform in concert at 4 p.m. on Dec. 4 at the Weirton Seventh Day Adventist Church, located at 600 Colliers Way, Weirton.

The concert also will feature Ernie Hernandez.

Music and testimony about the peace that is found in Christ will be presented, according to a church spokesperson.

Philoptochos gyro sale Dec. 7

at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox

STEUBENVILLE Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church Philoptochos Society will host its monthly sale of gyros from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Dec. 7 at the church, located at 300 S. Fourth St.

Gyros are $8 each. There will be a 25 cent charge for extra tzatziki sauce.

The kouroulakia (twist cookies) are $7 a dozen.

There is free delivery on orders of four or more gyros. Orders will be accepted the day of the sale by phone to (740) 282-9835 or fax at (740) 282-2091.

Allowing a minimum of 20 minutes to process phone or fax orders is asked.

Ron Retzer Trio entertains

Three Scores Seniors group

WEIRTON The November meeting of the Three Score Seniors group was called to order with President Kathy McCarrick having Bob Watson give the invocation.

Following dinner, Mary Ellen Groves introduced the evenings entertainment, the Ron Retzer Trio.

Treasurer George Pohlman gave the treasury report. Membership Chair Brenda Edwards said there are 80 members with dues collected through December. A report on cards sent and a birthday was provided by Sunshine Chair Winnie Kemp.

House Chair Kathy McCarrick used a fall theme for table decorations.

Reservation Chair Vivian Weigel reported there were 59 members attending and five guests Rich Ceraolo, a guest of Diann Ceraolo; Rob Klepadlo, guest of Walt and Mary Margaret Klepadlo; Bill Haynes, guest of Ida Haynes; Kathy Greiner, guest of Carol Korzi; and Joyce Barnhart, guest of Harold and Mary Ann Elliott.

Historian Lee Edwards had updated albums on display.

McCarrick thanked thanked the nominating committee for its work and introduced officers for 2022. Ed Powell will serve as president along with vice president, Sandra Briggs; Cindy Richards, secretary; and George Pohlman, treasurer. The leaders will be installed at the December meeting.

Jim Hare and Lee Edwards gave envelopes to George Pohlman, Simone Edwards, Mary Ann Elliott and Margaret Chapman. Lee Edwards and Larry Purks gave the 50/25/25 to Kathy McCarrick and Mary Margaret Klepadlo. Undos dinners went to Larry Purks and Billie Dietz with fruit baskets to Nancy Smurda and Linda Walter, given by Betty Virtue and Brenda Edwards.

Watson gave the benediction.

St. Pauls Parish in Weirton participant in Giving Tuesday

WEIRTON St. Pauls Parish in Weirton is participating in Giving Tuesday on Tuesday. Those interested in supporting St. Pauls can contact the office at (304) 748-6710 to donate time, talent and treasure that benefits the church, school and community.

Online donation is available through https://csa.dwcministries.org/donate/

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

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Community news from around the area | News, Sports, Jobs - The Daily Times

OH! So thats why everyone was talking about hacked voting machines.

The only women on the board of NYUs Federalist Society chapter resigned in protest after the chapter decided to invite a male anti-abortion speaker who doesnt even bother with fig leaf legal justifications for his opposition to Roe and instead just thinks the courts should embrace theocracy. This prompted the resigning board members to draft a letter outlining their frustrations with the whole process and their systematic marginalization.

Not to belittle the honest concerns of these women, but this letter reads like we joined the Zombie Cannibalism Club for the camaraderie and were shocked and dismayed by all the zombie cannibalism going on around here.

In a discussion following the second vote, the President admitted that the motivation for this event was to have a pro-life vs. pro-choice debate and express a view of what the law should be, admitting his initial reasoning for the event (a discussion of the legal arguments in Dobbs) was pretextual. This runs in direct opposition to one of the primary tenets of the Federalist Society rule of law, which is for the judiciary to say what the law is and not what it should be.

Oh. No. Thats not the primary tenet of this organization at all. If there is a primary tenet to the Federalist Society it might actually be the word pretextual. Its just a debate society to the extent it dupes the occasional moderate lawyer into showing up and lending the organization their credibility. But the core mission is always to cultivate a right-wing legal subculture.

Instead, certain board members have suggested the most polarising Ben Shapiro-esque activist lawyer types to come talk. .

Yeah thats the Federalist Society. Chapters of this organization invited anti-gay bigots to rail against Windsor and Obergefell while they were coming up and cultivated a borderline obsession with Chick-fil-A that carries on to this day. Chapters run counter Pride Days! The authors decry their chapters antics as if this is some sort of new turn, but this is what the Federalist Society has always been.

Except they used to serve pizza.

Speakers who will alienate female members of the board, will draw a lot of anger from the NYU Law community, and make it clear that NYU Law FedSoc does not stand for the principles it claims it stands for of being a nonpartisan organisation interested in rule of law and individual rights, and instead is an activist conservative Republican organisation disinterested in legitimate legal inquiry.

On the subject of giving out free pizza, theres always one or two FedSoc members who just stumbled into a classroom looking for a cheap meal and who really dont care about the clubs ideological mission. But one would hope that by the time a student makes it onto the BOARD theyd figured out what was up. The organizations leadership was actively moonlighting for the Trump White House. The whole point of the Federalist Society is to identify and nurture right-wing law students so they can become right-wing jurists when they get older. Or maybe they dont even need to get older first. Its a purely ideological mission.

Please accept our sincerest apologies for failing to prevent NYU Laws chapter of the Federalist Society from following the national trend of becoming Turning Point USA, Law School Edition.

Ill just let the astronauts answer this one.

Giving these women the benefit of the doubt, maybe theyd hoped to make the NYU chapter into a more old-school Ron Paul libertarian sort of thing. But thats not how these things work. The motivation for most people joining this club will always be to shore up connections with right-wing legal figures and, for better or worse, that favors the most aggressive trolling. There may have been a kernel of a civil, measured Federalist Society at one point, but a civil, measured Federalist Society doesnt get people plugged in with the power players in the conservative legal movement and those power players are folks like these activist anti-abortion attorneys. The group will always gravitate to the more radical corners of the movement because the people they need to impress to get their clerkships and Jones Day offers and House internships are all firmly ensconced in the more radical corners of the movement.

And so it goes.

Joe Patriceis a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free toemail any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him onTwitterif youre interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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Women Resign From Law School FedSoc Board After Realizing What FedSoc Is All About - Above the Law

The Long Slide: Thirty Years in American Journalismby tucker carlsonthreshold editions, 288 pages, $28

Tucker Carlson has become such a fixture in the world of cable-television news that its easy to forget he began his journalistic career as a writer. And a very good one at that, as this wide-ranging and immensely entertaining selection of essays from the past three decades serves to demonstrate. Carlsons easygoing, witty, and compulsively readable prose has appeared everywhere from The Weekly Standard (where he was on staff during the nineties) to the New York Times, the Spectator, Forbes, New Republic, Talk, GQ, Esquire, and Politico, which in January 2016 published Carlsons astonishing and prophetic article titled Donald Trump is Shocking, Vulgar, and Right. That essay has been preserved for posterity in these pages, along with twenty-two other pieces, plus a bombshell of an introduction written expressly for the occasion. More of that in a moment.

The first response of many of todays readers, particularly those who dont like the tenor of Carlsons generally right-populist politics or the preppy swagger and bubbly humor of his TV persona, will be to dismiss The Long Slide as an effort to cash in on the authors current notoriety by recycling old material to make a buck. That was my assumption when I first opened this collection. But the book has an underlying unity, and a serious message. It evokes a bygone age, an era of magazine and newspaper journalism that seems golden in retrospect, and is now so completely gone that one must strain to imagine that it ever existed at all. The simple fact is that almost none of these essays could be published today, certainly not in the same venues: They are full of language and imagery and a certain brisk cheerfulness toward their subject matter that could not possibly pass muster with the Twittering mob of humorless and ignorant moralists who dictate the editorial policies of todays elite journalism.

Carlsons writing style reflects the influence of the New Journalists such as Tom Wolfe and Hunter Thompson, who brought a jaunty, whiz-bang you-are-there narrative verve and high-spirited drama to the task of telling vividly detailed stories about unusual people and places, generally relating them in the first person. Carlsons prose is not as spectacular as Wolfes or as thrillingly unhinged as Thompsons. But it has its own virtues, being crystal clear, conversational, direct, and vigorous, never sending a lardy adjective to do the work of a well-chosen image, and never using gimmicky wild punctuation or stretched-out words to fortify a point. Hes a blue-blazer and button-down-collar guy, not a compulsive wearer of prim white suits or a wigged-out drug gourmand wearing a bucket hat and aviator glasses. But many of Carlsons writings give the same sense of reporting as an unfolding adventure, a traveling road show revolving around the reactions and experiences of the author himself.

Carlson usually shows a certain fundamental affection for the people he writes about, even if he also ribs or mocks them in some ways. In particular, there is none of that ugly contempt for the booboisie and ordinary Americans that one finds, for example, in the pages of H. L. Mencken, and in a great deal of prestige journalism. Instead, he reserves his contempt for the well-heeled know-it-alls who genuinely deserve it. In that sense, the Carlson of these essays does not seem very different from the Carlson of today. He always has been a bit of a traitor to his class, and commendably so.

That provides another good reason for this books existence. There is a cottage industry of articles out there, no doubt drawing upon thousands of gossipy lunch conversations among employed and semi-employed members of journalisms envious Hive, about the horrifying transformation that Carlson is alleged to have undergone. Tucker Carlsons transition, says the speechwriter-comedian Jon Lovett, from conservative serious-ish writer to blustery CNN guy to Daily Caller troll to race-baiting Fox News host is like ice core data on what led to this moment in our politics. Or consider the words of Liz Lenz in the Columbia Journalism Review: If we can figure out how an intelligent writer and conservative can go from writing National Magazine Awardnominated articles and being hailed by some of the best editors in the business, to shouting about immigrants on Fox News, perhaps we can understand what is happening to this country, or at least to journalism, in 2018.

Both of these no-doubt-formidable analysts are on to something. Tucker Carlson is indeed a figure of real significance in the culture of todays journalism. But not for the reasons they think. They might get further in their ruminations if they were willing to entertain the thought that it is not Carlson, but their own industry, that has changed almost beyond recognition; and that he is a brave outlier standing against a smug profession that routinely confers plaudits and prizes on itself for demonstrably false reporting and naked political advocacy.

Carlsons topics here run the gamut. The first of the essays is a long, elaborate, and rollicking tale (originally published in that New Journalism redoubt, Esquire) about a 2003 trip to West Africa in the company of some Nation of Islam members, plus Cornel West and Al Sharpton, all of whom were seeking to stop the civil war in the nation of Liberia. If that sounds like a perfect concept for a certain kind of situation comedythe rather plummy, very white, and bow-tied Carlson plunked down into and cooped up on an 11-hour Ghana Airlines flight with a group of black nationalists who couldnt mediate their way out of a paper bagyou have the idea. Throw in Professor West delivering himself of earnest disquisitions about the dialectic and paradigms and the horrors of an imperial imposition, and a Chicago pastor railing against the deadly corrupting evils of such television fare as I Love Lucy, and we have a comic feast on our hands.

Yet the article is far more than mockery. Carlson always seeks to humanize, not demonize, his subjects. West comes off as a bit of a fool but not a fake. The NOI members are earnest believers in some very strange and disturbing things, but also terrific conversationalists, smart and informed and well-mannered. And perhaps the greatest surprise of all is how well Sharpton comes off. There is a certain residual decency that shines through, underneath all the bluster and manipulation. If you find that hard to believe, all I can say is that you need to read the essay. It wont be a spoiler, though, for me to tell you in advance that the mission to Liberia failed.

Along with their humor, the essays excel in a certain kind of broad-brush portraiture. We see Ron Paul, the straight-arrow libertarian whose commitment to ideas is so intense that his aides must guard the absent-minded candidate against wandering into a gaggle of prostitutes in front of the cameras. We meet James Carville, the populist plutocrat and Democratic campaign consultant extraordinaire whom Carlson describes unsparingly, but then calls one of my favorite people in the world . . . a genuinely wise man whom he has consulted repeatedly for career advice.

There is an engrossing portrait of a driven John McCain campaigning for the Republican nomination for president in 2000: an endlessly complex and enigmatic bundle of contradictionsone minute a petty schemer, the next minute a soaring idealist, spontaneous to a fault, a witty devil-may-care quote-machine irresistible to journalists, but also a man whose high spirits and spurts of generosity and altruism would often give way to a darkness in his nature that led to regular eruptions of sheer destructiveness. A similarly subtle profile of George W. Bush as of September 1999 shows him as a remarkably open man, equipped with a brilliantly pungent sense of humor as well as a long memory for slights and grudges, whose main qualification for the White House was the fact that, unlike so many other maniacally aspirant politicians, the job of president appeared to be one that he could take or leave.

Not all of the portraits are of famous people. Carlson the writer resembles Wolfe in embracing the full spectrum of American eccentricity, and marveling at the strong and colorful oddities that a free society allows to exist. Carlsons childhood fascination with dangerous toys and explosives led him to discover Joel Suprise of Appleton, Wisconsin, whose fascination with creating ever more powerful and elaborate potato cannons led him to start his own business, the Spudgun Technology Center, which still exists today. Two essays are devoted to Derek Richardson, a con-man beggar and identity thief whom Carlson tracked down after himself being the credulous victim of the mans game. The second essay ends sadly, with the revelation of the failed life and parental disappointment behind the trajectory of this chronic deadbeat.

As this example suggests, not all of the essays are light and easy. There are serious and highly detailed accounts of the heavy use of private contractors in prosecuting Operation Iraqi Freedom, and on the persistent appeal of eugenics, though it now goes by such names as genetic counseling and prenatal diagnosis. But Carlson generally eschews the kind of moralizing and sermonizing that is required of our new media masters, preferring to show the spectacle to his readers, and leave it to them to decide what they think about it.

The introduction, however, takes a different tack. It is Carlsons apologia for the book, and it is hard-hitting. He remarks upon the changed tone of journalism since the days when these essays were written. In 1991, journalists were proud to be open-minded, and I was proud to become one. . . . Editors saw themselves as the guardians of free speech and unfettered inquiry. . . . Being despised was something you bragged about. It meant you were telling the truth.

He then goes on to describe a portion of the long slide alluded to in his title, concentrating on the descent of the book trade. He tells the story of Simon & Schusters rapid decline, beginning with its 2017 cancellation under pressure of a book deal with gay-conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos. The story culminates in an excruciatingly embarrassing dialogue between Carlson and two S&S executives who find themselves unable to explain the companys decision to cancel Sen. Josh Hawleys The Tyranny of Big Tech, while moving full steam ahead with Hunter Bidens pseudo-book Beautiful Thingseven as Biden was under active investigation by the Justice Department for his shady business dealings in China.

The only possible explanation for this asymmetry is that publishing today, like journalism, has become nakedly politicized. It never occurred to me, Carlson says, that a story of mine might be killed, or rewritten into mush, because some executive thought Id voted the wrong way. If small-minded partisans had been in charge, I never could have stayed in the business. Now they are the ones in charge. At this point, people with my opinions cant [stay in the business]. Theyve been driven from traditional journalism.

And there is the problem. Anyone serious-ishly interested in examining ice core data on the causes of journalisms decline, and achieving a better understanding of what is happening to this country, need look no further than this story, along with the rest of the book. There the reader will find some sparkling examples of what a talented journalist once could do in a society freer than todays. Perhaps the next generation will make use of them.

Wilfred McClay is professor of history at Hillsdale College, and author most recently of Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story.

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Tucker Carlson, Class Traitor | Wilfred M. McClay - First Things

Tainted

I would like to taint the City of St. Paul.

Some background: Around 100 years ago my family bought the whole side of a city block in a tax foreclosure sale, five lots. The plan was to give one lot to each of the sons and daughters.

One son was killed in WWII, the others moved out of town. So there are two houses on the remaining four lots, they have always stayed in the family. We are campers so we have had our camping trailers stored in the back corner of one of the lots since the 1960s. We have always tried to keep up with the changes to zoning regulations to keep it back there. We even paid the city for a driveway cutout when curbs were added to our street. Weve always kept our extra cars up there with just enough driveway to satisfy zoning laws. These are not nuisance cars. They are well maintained and constantly used.

We try to be good neighbors in our neighborhood. The city sends us a letter that they changed the rules once again and we are no longer allowed to park on our own property without significant changes. Admittedly, we havent looked into what those changes are yet, we will wait until next spring.

So, fine, we will park on the street in front of our own house.

Then, not even a week later, the are signs put up that say no parking during school hours, which I get because it is always a mess out there. We have occasionally not been able to use our driveway as people just park wherever when they get their kids. Weve had to strategically park our cars when we knew we were going to take the camper out. So we cant park in our yard, and now we cant park in front of our house.

This just seems like over-meddling to me. Let us use our own stuff. Stop trying to be our nanny.

Craig Lloyd, St. Paul

On Friday the 19th my husband and I went to the Wal-Mart in Oak Park Heights. After filling our cart we went to pay. As I took out my credit card a pretty young woman told me to put it away. She then proceeded to pay our bill.

I was taken aback so I didnt think to get her name but my husband asked if he could hug her, and proceeded to do so.

She should be sainted.

All she asked us to do was pay it forward

Carol and Russ Nygren, Stillwater

Sainted to the couple who bought our dinner and drinks on Nov. 23 while we were celebrating Moms birthday at Mancinis.

How kind and thoughtful. We will definitely pay it forward.

Mike Galdonik, St. Paul

A belated thank you and sainted to the historic unbeaten North St Paul 1970-71 football team that celebrated its 50th anniversary at our history museum back in October and thanks, too, for the $250 donation from the Class of 1971 to our museum. Twas so good to see the core players of that outstanding team and also for the entire Tom Carlson family to show up with the old coach for this event. That was special. Thanks also to Ron Adams (linebacker and National Honor Society) and Pat Behm Chase (contact person and trophy/photo finder) who helped round up these old fellas.

Also, a very belated thanks to the 1961 baseballL Polars who won the State Championship as seniors after winning the consolation trophy as juniors and they gave us a fine program back in September. Thanks also to North Hi A.D. Jed Helwig and his very able assistant Ty Moore for digging up those old trophies and more thanks to our own Kevin Jents (1958) and Clyde Doepner (1962) who helped stitch the program together. Finally, we also found Don Arlich, our stalwart pitcher and great all-around athlete who finished his career as a math teacher (yes, Miss Joyce would be so proud) at our old rival school St Paul Park. And thanks for the autographed baseball that also was special.

Bruce Fisher, North St. Paul

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Sainted & Tainted: After a hundred years, we cant park on our St. Paul lot. Or in front of our house. - TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press

The American Independent Foundation asked every major candidate running for U.S. Senate in 2022 about their COVID-19 vaccination status.

At least six candidates running for U.S. Senate in 2022 remain unvaccinated against the coronavirus, an American Independent Foundation analysis shows.

All of the unvaccinated candidates are Republicans, conforming with trends showing a wide partisan gap in the United States' vaccination rate. Every Democratic candidate for Senate has received at least one COVID-19 shot.

There are 91 major Senate candidates running for office in 2022. That number includes incumbents seeking re-election, challengers seeking to replace those candidates, and individuals running in states with open seats.

Of those candidates identified, 50 had spoken publicly to their status as vaccinated against COVID-19 or were reported to be fully or partially vaccinated by other news organizations. Five had previously stated publicly that they were not vaccinated or were reported to be so. And the remainder had not commented on whether they had received the shots.

All U.S. senators seeking re-election are vaccinated except for two: Sens. Ron Johnson (R-WI) andRand Paul (R-KY). Johnson has yet to formally announce his re-election bid but is expected to seek another term. "I'm not going to get the vaccine," Johnson said in a recent interview with C-SPAN. He added that if members of Congress were required to get vaccinated, "I would just stop coming here."

Paul, like Johnson, has previously contracted the virus, and the two argue that grants them a so-called "natural immunity" such that they do not require vaccination. Though studies have shown that previous infection does provide some level of protection, the CDC still recommends that everyone eligible gets vaccinated against COVID-19. Moreover, a recent CDC study showed that unvaccinated Americans who previously contracted the virus were over five times more likely to get COVID again than those who were fully vaccinated.

Former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, who running to replace Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO), told a local radio show in August that he was not vaccinated. He has also come under fire for not having a plan to get more people vaccinated. Greitens' campaign did not respond to multiple inquiries about his vaccination status.

Fellow Missouri Senate candidate Mark McCloskey has similarly refused to get vaccinated, according to the Missouri Independent. McCloskey rose to prominence after he and his wife brandished guns at protestors demonstrating in response to the murder of George Floyd. McCloskey recently suggested that people who refuse the vaccine would get "their name on a list" and would eventually "get eliminated." His campaign did not respond to multiple inquiries.

Mark Pukita, an Ohio IT executive seeking to replace Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), bragged in a GOP candidate forum earlier this month that he was the "only one up here" who was not vaccinated, though fellow GOP candidate Josh Mandell has refused to disclose his vaccination status and did not respond to multiple inquiries. Pukita may remain unvaccinated, but he holds up to $50,000 in Johnson & Johnson stock and up to $15,000 in Pfizer stock, two companies that manufacture COVID-19 vaccines.

Jason Beebe, who serves as mayor of Prineville, Oregon, and recently announced a long-shot bid to oust incumbent Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), confirmed to the American Independent Foundation in an email that he was unvaccinated. "I have talked with my doctor and am waiting for more testing and results," Beebe said.

Beyond those who have stated publicly or confirmed privately that they were unvaccinated, several leading candidates have refused to disclose their status altogether.

Herschel Walker, a retired football player running to unseat Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA), has refused to say if he is vaccinated. In October, Walker's campaign canceled a fundraiser with a conservative film producer whose Twitter profile picture showed a swastika made of needles. Walker's campaigndid not respond to multiple inquiries about his vaccination status.

Senate candidate Marc Brnovich, who currently serves as Arizona's attorney general, has also refused to say whether he has been vaccinated. A reporter asked Brnovich about his vaccination status on Monday, to which he responded, "Have you had an STD?" Brnovich's campaign did not respond to multiple inquiries from the American Independent Foundation.

Public health officials are increasingly worried about a resurgence of COVID-19 cases heading into the winter months. Still, research has found that hesitant people may be persuaded to get vaccinated with the encouragement of local officials they know and trust, including their political representatives. Public opinion research has shown that as more conservative leaders come to support vaccines, so do their followers.

"If you can get Republican [leaders] to stand up for science, to stand up for public health, to stand up for vaccines, you're going to have an easier time convincing Republicans in public to do the same," Matt Motta, assistant professor of political science at Oklahoma State University, told the American Independent Foundation in August.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.

Original post:

At least 6 Senate candidates have refused a COVID vaccine and they're all Republican - The American Independent

Before we dive into a discussion on Digital World Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ:DWAC) stock, the controversial special purpose acquisition company that will take Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) public, its helpful to separate the noise from the narrative.

Source: NESPIX / Shutterstock.com

In other words, your personal feelings about former President Trump should not dictate your ultimate decision on DWAC stock.

Instead, its more productive to acknowledge the reality of the underlying situation. For instance, Trump is incredibly popular. I cant think of any former president that had as much sway post-election than The Donald.

That alone is enough to warrant a look at DWAC stock. After all, were in a market environment where collective sentiment plays a greater role than usual.

But what is the source of Trumps charisma? According to an opinion piece by Salon, America loves a bully. Bluntly, contributor Amanda Marcotte wrote in September 2015 that Trump is the affluent bully who revels in his privilege and enjoys stomping on those with less unearned social power than he has. And the Republican base is eating it up.

Granted, Salon leans left politically and the right will find Marcottes description of the former president ungenerous. Nevertheless, the author may be onto something, noting that conservative-leaning audiences lap up shock jocks like the late Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter.

I can tell you one thing. The country that brought the world Hollywood loves simple, digestible narratives: North versus south. Left versus right. Cowboys and Indigenous Americans.

Naturally, DWAC stock by virtue of underlining TMTGs Truth Social platform caters to the binarism that dominates most social and political discourse in the U.S.

Further, when grievances both real and perceived undergird said binarism, you have an incredibly powerful, perhaps unprecedented catalyst.

You want evidence of this catalyst? Then-candidate Donald Trump was able to corral the hurt and suffering whether real or perceived, it doesnt matter of his core voting base and it propelled him to the White House.

He didnt win on the issues. Remember, when Ron Paul was vying for the Republican nomination, the conservative audience booed him for promoting an anti-interventionist stance regarding sanctions on Iran. Just a few years later, then-President Trump attempted a peace negotiation with North Korea.

From the Axis of Evil to shaking hands with Kim Jong Un, Trumps charisma combined with Americas love for binary narratives resulted in astounding events in U.S. history. But somehow, DWAC stock is going to be a failure? It could be, dont get me wrong but the SPAC has less of a credibility challenge to climb.

More importantly, data from the Pew Research Center shows that the underlying business of DWAC stock features a massive addressable market. To no ones surprise, young people regularly consume news through social media platforms.

Significantly, though, two demographics whites and the modestly educated consume a large portion of their news through social media.

Granted, overall, Democrats dominate social media usage relative to Republicans. However, platforms like Truth Social have an opportunity to reach many under-the-radar conservatives, particularly those who feel they have been shamed and denigrated by mainstream institutions.

Again, Trump spoke to millions of Americans who felt this way and it led to powerful results. Why wouldnt the same apply for DWAC stock?

Business Insider provided an interesting take that Generation Z is more conservative than many realize. Considering that conservative social media content creators think alt-right channels before they got de-platformed were outrageously successful, DWACs prospective investors should be licking their lips.

To be clear, no guarantee exists that DWAC stock will be successful. Certainly, anti-Trump advocates on the left are doing everything they can to stymie its progress. However, in my opinion, conservative, even right-wing ideologies taking over social media and the internet is an inevitability.

Why? Liberal and progressive ideologies have become the social norm. Today, we are more socially aware across a library of issues than we ever have been. At some point, being even more liberal and more progressive yields a lower rate of return. Its the sociological version of the law of large numbers.

But you know what will gain quicker and more robust success? Being anti-establishment, deliberately stoking politically incorrect talking points. Its based (as the kids like to say) and its so entertaining because it tickles the reptilian part of our brain.

And tickling, if you think about it, is why the internet exists. Ultimately, binary audiences are easier to manipulate and thereby monetize. Its how one old man got eviscerated for wanting to be friends with Iran but how another old man was celebrated for befriending North Korea.

Binarism. Theres no drug like it. And thats exactly what a share of DWAC stock gets you.

On the date of publication, Josh Enomoto did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.comPublishing Guidelines.

A former senior business analyst for Sony Electronics, Josh Enomoto has helped broker major contracts with Fortune Global 500 companies. Over the past several years, he has delivered unique, critical insights for the investment markets, as well as various other industries including legal, construction management, and healthcare.

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Digital World Acquisition Confirms the Internet Belongs to the Right - Investorplace.com

Rutgers mens basketball lost their third consecutive game on a three-point dagger in the closing seconds on Saturday. This time it was against UMass, who the Scarlet Knights led by as many as 17 points and by 15 with over eight minutes to play. The Minutemen hit four three-pointers down the stretch, including the last at the buzzer by star Noah Fernandes. They made 16 of 32 attempts from behind the arc in the game as Rutgers only scored 7 points in the final seven minutes of the game. The result was a 85-83 loss on the road that has this team reeling even more so.

It was Paul Mulcahy who put Rutgers back in front by 1 with 5 seconds left in the game. However, the defense failed to recognize Fernandes quickly enough and the Scarlet Knights paid dearly for it. This was a crucial game for RU to get back on track before the schedule ramps up in the next two weeks. Their inability to close out games is directly tied to their inability to close out on shooters in the final possessions of games.

The glass half full approach says that Rutgers is three possessions to a 6-0 record. However, its the lack of execution on both ends of the floor that has doomed this team and is why the reality is a 3-3 record.

While Rutgers was much better offensively in this game, they stalled down the stretch and the zone implored by UMass stymied them. They shot 63.2% from two-point range and held a commanding 50-12 advantage with points in the paint. RU was also 12 of 15 from the foul line and were +12 on the boards. They also dished out 25 assists on 34 made field goals, so sharing the basketball was much better. The issue was an inability to get buckets and hold the lead down the stretch, while remaining vulnerable against a team with three-point shooters.

This team continues to struggle with defending without fouling, as UMass was 21 of 27 from the free throw line off of 17 Rutgers fouls.

Six players scored in double digits, led by Cliff Omoruyi with 16 points on 7 of 9 shooting and a team high 8 rebounds. Ralph Gonzales-Agee was a bright spot off the bench, scoring 14 points on 5 of 5 shooting, as was Mawot Mag, who finished with 12 points and 4 rebounds. Jaden Jones had 11 points and 4 rebounds in his first career start, while Ron Harper Jr. and Paul Mulcahy each had 11 points as well. Harper Jr. also had 5 boards and 5 assists, while Mulcahy had 6 assists and 5 rebounds. Caleb McConnell played his best game of the season, finishing with 6 points, 9 assists, and 6 steals. He was much more disciplined in only committing one turnover and not attempting a three-pointer.

Geo Baker missed the game with a lower leg injury that was suffered in Mondays loss to Lafayette. After the game, head coach Steve Pikiell said that he wasnt close to playing and that he hasnt done anything in regard to practicing this past week. It sounds like Baker will miss multiple games with the schedule only ramping up. Clemson comes to Piscataway on Tuesday, followed by the Big Ten opener at Illinois next Friday.

Rutgers is officially in crisis mode in regard to their season outlook. Pikiell remained loyal to his team in the postgame, stating Weve lost three games by one possession. We havent been able to finish them. Youre right, and hold those expectations against me too, guys. Because I really believe in this team. This team is going to keep working and were going to figure this out.

After two impressive seasons that included a NCAA Tournament victory last March, the cold reality of this campaign has left fans without hope for this team before the calendar has even reached December.

BOX SCORE

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Rutgers loses at buzzer again after blowing 17 point lead to UMass - On The Banks

Former member of the United States House of Representatives Ron Paul stated that he wants to legitimize the dollars competitors like Bitcoin and choose a currency used by the people, not the government. Freedom of choice will solve the problem, he said.

In a recent interview, Ron Paul acknowledged that he researched Bitcoin as an alternative asset. He also spoke about the Ron Paul Liberty Report, created in 2015 by the Texas Congressman to provide provocative opinions and analysis on current issues affecting our lives and finances.

When asked about the acceptance of Bitcoin, Paul said that he knows more cases of precious metals being used as money than cryptocurrencies. I was fascinated with it for a long time. But I am also fascinated with what is coming, he said.

People should have as much freedom as possible to choose, he added. He later outlined the bill he presented to Congress to not only audit the Fed, but also to get rid of legal tender laws.

He explained that the current government would not allow Bitcoin to compete with the dollar domestically. My goal is to legalize competition and people will solve it. Freedom of choice will fix it. My concern is that governments for centuries have been very eager to be in control of money. Trust me, they wont give up control of the money.

He was asked what he meant when he said that competition should be legalized. Right now, if you buy and sell gold, tax it, they can do that, he replied. He also pointed out that if you make a profit on Bitcoin, you read stories about people paying taxes on it. You cannot tax money. If you bought a dollar a year ago and it falls 10%, you cannot take a loss because your dollar has lost value, he replied.

Recently, he also recognized that some people are very passionate about Bitcoin and see it as the only currency that can replace the dollar. But in his opinion the dollar will hold, but it wont be worth much.

Read more:

Cryptocurrency : Ron Paul on Bitcoin: It should be legalized as money and compete with the dollar Explica .co - Explica

I have my doubts whether the Putin-Biden summit in Geneva will take place later this month, but even if somehow it is pulled off, recent Biden Administration blunders mean the chance anything of substance will be achieved is virtually nil.

The Biden Administration was supposed to signal a return of the adults to the room. No more bully Trump telling NATO its useless, ripping up international climate treaties, and threatening to remove troops from the Middle East and beyond. US foreign policy would again flourish under the steady, practiced hands of the experts.

Then Biden blurted out in a television interview that President Putin was a killer with no soul. Then US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discovered the hard way that his Chinese counterparts were in no mood to be lectured on an international rules-based order that is routinely flouted by Washington.

Its going to be a rough ten days for President Biden. Just as news breaks that under the Obama/Biden Administration the US was routinely and illegally spying on its European allies, he is preparing to meet those same allies, first at the G7 summit in England on June 11-13 and then at the June 14th NATO meeting in Brussels.

Make no mistake, Joe Biden is up to his eyeballs in this scandal. Ed Snowden Tweeted late last month when news broke that the US teamed up with the Danes to spy on the rest of Europe, that Biden is well-prepared to answer for this when he soon visits Europe since, of course, he was deeply involved in this scandal the first time around.

Though Germanys Merkel and Frances Macron have been loyal US lapdogs, the revelation of how Washington treats its allies has put them in the rare position of having to criticize Washington. Outrageous and unacceptable are how they responded to the news.

Russia has been routinely accused (without evidence) of malign conduct and interference in internal US affairs, but it turns out that the country actually doing the spying and meddling was the US all along and against its own allies!

Surely this irony is not lost on Putin.

Biden has bragged in the US media that he would be taking Putin to task for Russias treatment of political dissidents like Alexei Navalny. Biden wrote recently in the Washington Post, that when he meets Putin, I will again underscore the commitment of the United States, Europe and like-minded democracies to stand up for human rights and dignity.

Perhaps President Putin will remind him of how the Biden Administration continues the slow-motion murder of Julian Assange for the non-crime of being a journalist exposing government misdeeds.

Perhaps Putin will remind Biden of how US political dissidents are being treated, such as the hundreds arrested for what the Democrats and the mainstream media laughably call the January 6th Insurrection. Many of these non-violent and unarmed protesters have been held in solitary confinement with no chance of bail, even though they have no prior arrests or convictions. Most await trial on minor charges that may not even take place until next year.

The Washington foreign policy establishment is hopelessly corrupt. The weaponization of the US dollar to bring the rest of the world to heel is backfiring. Only a serious change in course toward non-interventionism and non-aggression can avert a disaster. Time is running out.

This article was published by RonPaul Institute.

Originally posted here:

Ron Paul: The Coming Biden/Putin Train-Wreck Summit OpEd - Eurasia Review

On paper, former Texas Rep. Beto ORourke and current Florida Rep. Charlie Crist have little in common. The former, a somewhat progressive three-term Democratic House member with a failed presidential bid, is reportedly mulling a gubernatorial run in Texas. The latter, a former Republican, is hoping to reclaim his old office in the Florida governors mansion this time as a Democrat by challenging Republican incumbent Ron DeSantis. But both ORourke and Crist are risking their political credibility if they run again and lose, as theyve already failed to win two consecutive runs for office. Even worse, they could be marked as perennial candidates. And given the track record of candidates who have already had multiple unsuccessful bids for higher office, both men are facing uphill climbs.

For starters, candidates whove lost just once let alone twice often dont have much better luck the next go-around. We looked at candidates whove run for U.S. Senate, governor or president after they lost just one election and then tried to run again and found that since 1998, only 33 of 121 of them have managed to win higher office after having lost once. Losses transcended political parties, too, with 53 Democrats and 36 Republicans failing in their second attempt.

In understanding why these 33 candidates were successful the second time around, one pattern stands out: Just over one-third of these candidates were already in office when they tried to seek another seat; specifically, they were all sitting senators with their eyes on the presidency (think Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, John McCain of Arizona and Cory Booker of New Jersey, to name a few). Another 30 percent were candidates who unsuccessfully ran for one office but successfully ran for another (Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, former North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp). And then there were 27 percent who lost their first race but won in a subsequent election for the same office (former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, South Dakota Sen. John Thune, former Nevada Sen. John Ensign). The last notable trend here is the people who have run for president more than once, winning their partys primary after previously losing it (Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden). To be clear, though, neither Clinton nor Biden sought the presidency in back-to-back cycles; these are just the last two elected offices that either sought. (Clinton ran in 2008 and 2016, while Biden ran in 2008 and 2020.) And for Biden specifically, serving as Barack Obamas vice president for eight years may have helped his 2020 bid for president, as he was able to build up both his name recognition and political bona fides.

But after two failed bids, the numbers get even worse. Just 20 people have run for U.S. senator, governor or president after losing two consecutive elections. And only one, Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy, who won a 2016 runoff race after losing two previous Senate races, was successful.

Thats why several political scientists I spoke to said that for candidates like ORourke and Crist, running a third time after two consecutive losses is a dangerous game. It is hard for people to run successfully after losing twice, said Peter Francia, a professor of political science at East Carolina University. Donors want winners. As a result, fundraising is a challenge. Interest groups want winners. So, endorsements are a challenge. Local, state, and national party organizations are also strategic in where they place their resources. Voters may even grow tired of a perennial candidate.

In other words, history doesnt bode well for ORourke and Crist, and neither do the polls. Its too early in the cycle for reliable head-to-head polling, but favorability ratings show that despite being relatively well-known, neither man is terribly popular. An April statewide poll by The Dallas Morning News and the University of Texas at Tyler found that just 35 percent of registered Texas voters viewed ORourke very or somewhat favorably compared with 37 percent who viewed him very or somewhat unfavorably. And in a February Mason-Dixon poll of registered Florida voters, just 27 percent viewed Crist favorably, compared with 41 percent who viewed him unfavorably.

Plus, if ORourke and Crist do run and lose, theyd be in pretty bad company, as people who lose three elections in a row are not considered serious politicians. We found 19 candidates who had lost three or more elections since 1998 per our analysis, and it included trivial presidential candidates like former Rep. Ron Paul of Texas and Alan Keyes, a former diplomat and radio commentator who ran long-shot bids twice not to mention a bid for the U.S. Senate, too. Not all candidates started out unserious, though. Former Washington state Sen. Dino Rossi, for instance, was a respected politician who ruined his career by running for office unsuccessfully several times. That said, many who fall into this category are like Paul and Keyes, or Roque De La Fuente, a businessman and car dealership owner who lost so many times on the Republican and Democratic tickets that hes now a perennial third-party candidate.

The best-case scenario, then, for people like ORourke and Crist if they do run again and lose is that they become someone like former state Rep. Cam Cavasso of Hawaii a respectable politician whose legacy was overshadowed as he gained a reputation as a perennial loser. (Beginning in 1984, Cavasso was elected to three consecutive terms in the Hawaii House but ran for a U.S. Senate seat three times and lost in 2004, 2010 and 2014.)

The process of losing tends to label one a loser, said David Barker, a professor of government at American University. You start to look like somebody whos just so ambitious that you dont care about anything else and you start to look like a little bit of a fool. If you want to be taken seriously, or seen as someone who cares about the issues, then you find non-political ways to contribute for a while, let some time go by and use that as a springboard for the future.

Plus, said Barker, having the stain of a loser isnt good for voter psychology. In fact, one 2015 study by professors at Washington University in St. Louis, Harvard University and UCLA, found that when Obama defeated Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in 2012, Republicans reported happiness decreased twice as much as the reported happiness of Bostonians after the Boston Marathon bombing and American parents after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. Thats because, the authors note, partisan identity is central to the self and well-being. [T]he pain of losing an election is much larger than the joy of winning one, they write. Election outcomes strongly affect the short-term happiness/sadness of partisan losers, with minimal impact on partisan winners.

Of course, this hasnt stopped a lot of candidates from running again, and some of them, like Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who have each run for president twice, still have their reputations intact thanks to their political dynasty or passionate fan base. But theyre the exception, not the norm. Most perennial candidates dont find much political success, and after two consecutive losses, a candidates chances of winning get dicey.

In short, Barker said, if voters most recent memory of a candidate is two election losses, they may not want to vote for that person again. They start to view you as desperate, he said. Youre like the guy who wont stop calling after youve already told them no.

Continued here:

Why Most Candidates Dont Run Again After Losing Twice - FiveThirtyEight

Famous American politician Ron Paul thinks so Bitcoin (BTC) Money and must be recognized as such by law. Former Republican presidential candidate calls for full endorsement of Cryptocurrency.

Help legitimize competition and I think people will solve it on their own. Freedom of choice solves it.

The liberal said in an interview with Kitco News on June 3. Paul, 85, acknowledges that bitcoin, like gold, is being sought as an alternative to the US dollar. Both originals are treated as hedge or collar Or a safe haven against the unprecedented printing of paper currency by central banks.

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According to Paul, these alternative forms of money must also be recognized as such by law and then taxed in the same way as fiat currency:

Right now, if you buy and sell gold, it gets taxed. They can. When you make a profit with Bitcoin, you read stories about people who are taxed. You cant tax money, it doesnt. If you buy A year ago and fell 10%, you cant afford to lose because the dollar has lost its value.

However, Paul expects US regulators to further regulate and tax cryptocurrencies as they compete with the dollar. According to the former member of the House of Representatives, governments are known for their desire to have complete control over money and they will never relinquish that control.

pol . appears This weekend at the massive Bitcoin event in Miami to say the following:

I wont try to technically explain exactly if thats the case [crypto] Good, bad or indifferent. I will advocate more for the legalization of freedom of choice and for people to be able to decide for themselves and not the government on their behalf.

Coffee buff. Twitter fanatic. Tv practitioner. Social media advocate. Pop culture ninja.

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Bitcoin (BTC) is money and should be taxed the same way, says famous politician Ron Paul Crypto Insiders - Cheraw Chronicle

BITCOIN 2021, "the biggest Bitcoin event in history" is set to take place in Miami and more than 20,000people are expected to attend.

It comes after the market's slow recovery from plummeting in May 2021 after hitting record highs.

Follow our cyptocurrency live blog for the very latest news on Bitcoin, Dogecoin and market surges...

7

The Bitcoin 2021 conference has been moved from Los Angeles to Miami.

The massive cryptocurrency conference is set to launch on June 4 and 5, 2021.

Organizers have promised it will be "the most unforgettable experience in Bitcoin history."

A number of crypto-curious people are set to speak in the Bitcoin 2021 event.

Those are Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, computer scientist Nick Szabo, entrepreneur MichaelSaylor, Senator Cynthia Lummis, skater Tony Hawk and former Congressman Ron Paul.

7

Former Congressman Ron Paul is one of the guest speakers of the conference.

He has served as theUS RepresentativeforTexas.

Even though he has retired, he continues to provide political commentary throughThe Ron Paul Liberty Report,a web show on YouTube.

7

Twitter's CEO is another headline speaker at Bitcoin 2021.

Dorsey is also the CEO and Chairman of Square, afinancial paymentscompany.

Back in 2016, the 44-year-old entrepreneur gave nearly one-third of his Twitter shares to employees.

7

Computer scientist Szabo is also a speaker at the crypto event.

He is best known for his research indigital contractsanddigital currency.

The concept of "smart contracts", a major feature ofcryptocurrency was developed by Szabo.

7

Entrepreneur and business executive Saylor will be speaking at the Bitcoin conference.

He is the co-founder of MicroStrategy, a company that offers business intelligence, mobile software, and cloud-based services.

In 2012, he authored The Mobile Wave: How Mobile Intelligence Will Change Everything.

7

Cynthia Lummis is the junior senator from Wyoming, and the first woman to represent it in the Senate.

She currently serves on the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, and the Environment and Public Works Committee.

Upon taking office in the Senate in 2021, she is the first senator to own cryptocurrency.

7

Skater Tony Hawk is the owner of the skateboard companyBirdhouse.

In 1999, he famously landed a "900" skateboarding trick for the first time in competition in San Francisco.

In 2002, he launched the Tony Hawk Foundation to help build safe skateparks around the country.

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The two-day cryptocurrency event at Wynwoods Mana Convention Center is expected to feature special guests, BTC activations and "the chance to celebrate the worlds best technology with all of your internet friends IRL."

General tickets cost $1,500 and are already sold out.

Visitors who splashed $20,000 for a "whale pass" will get an extra day and various other perks such as Celebrity Suite tickets to Mayweather vs. Logan Paul fight and a Tony Hawk Meet-and-Greet Pass.

Excerpt from:

Bitcoin 2021 conference: Speaker line-up and what to expect... - The US Sun

The structural integrity of his brain might be questionable, but if anyone can spot a scam, its former President Donald Trump, whose business history is riddled with complaints of unpaid bills and shady financial dealings. On Monday, in an interview with Fox Business, Trump denounced Bitcoin, the volatile digital currency. Bitcoin, it just seems like a scam, said Trump. I dont like it because its another currency competing against the dollar. (Trump added, strangely for a supposed billionaire, that he was not invested in the stock market at the moment.)

Cue the obligatory Onion article: The worst person you know just made a great point. Trump hit on something that even Bitcoin critics sometimes overlook. Bitcoins status as a stateless, nonsovereign currency is, to its adherents, an obvious benefit. It frees them, in their view, from the shackles of fiat currency, which is run by tyrannical central banks that print currency out of thin air. For committed coiners, there are a range of other benefits, but this sense of independence from the state itself is key. For critics, though, its a quick road to feudalism, to a speculative market dominated by the biggest bag holders and those who operate cryptocurrency exchanges and other intermediaries. Rather than promoting economic liberty by being a stateless currency, Bitcoin provides entre to a wildcat market dominated by fraudsters, scammers, and powerful institutional investors. Theres a reason why Trump said what he did: He recognized his milieu.

In the ideologically tinged Bitcoin battle, one need not be either a fanatical coiner or a fiat nut. Nor does one have to abide by Trumps jingoistic economic policy to understand that a currency backed by the state carries certain benefits, and an inherent stability, that will never be found in a volatile digital currency invented by a still unknown creator, which is backed by nothing more than code and the faith of its holders. With its dramatic swings in recent weeks, Bitcoin has, yet again, proved its unfitness as a currency and its continued resemblance to something more like a wildly manipulative multilevel marketing scheme.

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Bitcoin is Ripe for Scams. Even Donald Trump Can See That. - The New Republic

Don Huffines arrived at an Austin restaurant for his first meeting of the Senate Republican Caucus and he was nervously clutching one of his favorite documentsthe Texas Republican party platform. This was in January of 2015, the state legislative session was underway, and Huffines, one of the newest senators, was still riding high after his defeat of a more moderate Republican incumbent whom he depicted as a crony capitalist and RINO (Republican in Name Only).

When it was Huffiness turn to speak at the caucus meeting, he told his nineteen colleagues that the platform represented the will of the party and that they needed to focus on turning the grassroots hopes and dreams into reality. There were two plans in particular, among the hundreds in the document, that he wanted to see passed: ending the franchise tax on businesses and making it legal to carry a handgun without a license. At the very least, he said, Republican senators were obliged to get those issues to the floor, where lawmakers could be held accountable for their votes.

His words, Huffines recalls, were met with silence. Gradually one, two, three, four, or more senators got up from the table in the middle of the meal and left the room. Needless to say, the rest of the night was awkward. And so too were the next four years. In the Senate, Huffines remained the truest of true believers, adamant and apart from both the Democrats and most Republicans. His single term ended four years later when he lost to Democrat Nathan Johnson by eight percentage points in a district that Governor Greg Abbott won by four. Few Democrats or Republicans in the Senate lamented Huffiness departure.

In the last few years, he has frequently recounted his memory of his first caucus dinner to conservative grassroots activists, who, as he tells them, are held in the same disdain as he. Patriots, I am going to tell you something you might not know, but that you need to know, Huffines said in January at a tea party gathering in Plano. Most, but not all, of your elected Republican officeholders, they dont like you. As a matter of fact, its fair to say that a lot of them, they belittle you, they make fun of you, they use you, they are duplicitous, and they are liars. And you know why? Because you might hold them accountable.

Such heated rhetoric has made Huffines persona non grata in most GOP circles.

But Huffines, who hails from a prominent and wealthy Dallas-area business family, welcomes the hatred. Indeed, its the kind of negative energy that he hopes will propel him into the Governors Mansion.

On May 10, Huffines announced that he would run against Governor Greg Abbott in 2022. His basic message: Abbott is no conservative. Its been 27 years since a Democrat was last elected to statewide office, but Huffines takes no satisfaction from that. He does not believe that any of the four Republican governors of Texas since Reconstructionneither Bill Clements nor George W. Bush, neither Rick Perry nor certainly Abbotthas been sufficiently conservative. Nor does he believe that the Legislature, completely under Republican control since 2003, has had a single conservative session. That includes the one that just ended, with Abbott signing into law a virtual ban on abortion and with legislation allowing permitless carry of firearms awaiting the governors signature.

Its not good enough, Huffines told Texas Monthly. Weve controlled everything in Austin for twenty years, everything. And year after year, we go back and beg for our priorities to become law. And maybe we get one or two issues done, three maybe, and theyre always watered down.

Huffiness candidacy is a very long shot, but not one Abbott, ever paranoid about threats from his right flank, can ignore. When Huffines launched his campaign, he made no secret of his strategy: he would run to Abbotts right as the only real Trump candidate in this race and seek the endorsement of the former president. I dont think Trumps gonna support Abbott, I really dont, he told me in mid-May. I dont know why he would. Abbotts never supported Trumps agenda. Hes never leading the charge for Trump. Hes never tried.

Yet on Tuesday, deploying his trademark Random Capitalization, Trump bestowed upon Abbott his Complete and Total Endorsement for re-election. He will never let you down! A half hour later, Huffines replied. Texas Primary voters and Trump supporters will decide for themselves who will lead our state forward and who has failed Texans repeatedly on issues that matter most. Huffines declared, I am the clear Trump candidate in the governors race.

That self-proclaimed status as the truest Trumper in the race may come under challenge. On Friday, Texas GOP chairman Allen West announced that he is stepping down as state party chairman and preparing to run for another office, though he was coy about which race he favored. Bumptious agriculture commissioner Sid Miller is also poised to jump into the GOP race for governor.

The unusually fluid situation presents all sorts of quandaries: Can Huffines (or West or Miller) overcome Trumps chosen candidate in Texas? With the former presidents seal of approval, is Abbott freed from the need to perpetually mollify critics on the right, or is he borrowing a different kind of trouble by becoming beholden to Trump?

Huffines is one of four brothers, the children of J.L. and Launa Huffines, best known for their familys car dealerships. While still in his teens Don Huffines was inspired by the writing of Murray Rothbard, an economist and political philosopher who was one of the fathers of paleolibertarianism, which blends economic libertarianism with social and cultural conservatism. In arguing for a strategy of right-wing populism, Rothbard was stirred by the example of the late red-baiting Wisconsin senator Joe McCarthy, admiring his willingness and ability to reach out, to short-circuit the power elite: liberals, centrists, the media, the intellectuals, the Pentagon, Rockefeller Republicans, and reach out and whip up the masses directly. Rothbard exulted that even as the Ruling Elite, from Official Right to Left defeated white supremacist David Duke when he ran for governor of Louisiana in 1992, he sure scared the bejesus out of them.

Huffines went to A&M for a year, before transferring to UT. After graduating with a degree in finance, Huffines went into residential real estate with his twin brother, Phillip. His older brother James, a banker, got involved in establishment Republican politics, serving as a top aide to Governor Clements in the eighties, an adviser to Governor Bush, and chair of Rick Perrys transition when he became governor. Huffines was drawn in a different direction, into the political orbit of Ron Paul, the former Republican member of Congress from Lake Jackson and three-time presidential candidate who was deeply influenced by paleolibertarianism. History will show this man has done more to change the political discourse of the world than most any man in modern history, Huffines said in his introductory remarks when Paul, making his last run for president, spoke at the Republican state convention in Fort Worth in 2012.

Four years later, Huffines chaired the short-lived 2016 presidential campaign in Texas of Pauls son, Rand, a U.S. senator from Kentucky. But it wasnt until President Trump that Huffines found the man that Rothbard had been looking for. With all the odds stacked against him, the entire media against him, Huffines said, Trump, distinguished himself from all the other Republican candidates who have run for president in the past because there was actually a difference between him and the Democrat.

Abbott, by contrast, errs on the side of caution, Huffines said. In his response to the pandemic, Abbott showed too much deference to experts and too little respect for individual autonomy, Huffines said, calling the governors performance the final straw. On March 15, 2020, he tweeted a warning: a quarantine was coming and Texans personal and economic liberty were under attack. Two weeks later, Abbott issued a statewide stay-at-home order, while initially refusing to use those words.

On April 15 Huffines published an op-ed throwing down the gauntlet: Abbotts unTexan leadership had effectively shut down the 10th-largest economy in the world by not standing up to local leaders who are usurping his authority. Two days later, Abbott named his brother James to lead his Strike Force to Open Texas.

But as Abbott zigged and zagged in the months that followed, he emboldened his enemies. In May and June, he hastened the reopening of the economy after Dallas salon owner Shelley Luther emerged overnight as a Rothbardian heroine for defying the governors shutdown orders and serving a couple of days in jail for contempt. Then as COVID-19 numbers spiked, the governor, ahead of the Fourth of July, buttoned the economy back up and did what he said he wouldnt doimpose a statewide mask order.

Abbott opened the virtual state GOP convention in July with a prerecorded message defending his leadership and rebuking the naysayers. Lucky for him, the Zoom convention made it impossible for anyone to boo, or at least to be heard doing so. But four days later, former Florida congressman West was elected chairman of the party on a message that focused on attacking Abbotts tyranny. The party platform written at the convention notably condemned lockdowns and mask mandates. In October, Huffines joined West and Sid Miller in a protest outside the Governors Mansion. The barbarians were at the gate.

The past year has undoubtedly been a difficult one for Abbott, as he navigated the pandemic and presided over the spectacular failure of the states power grid, which is overseen by his appointees, during the February freeze. According to the most recent Texas Politics Project polling, conducted in April, Abbott had the support of 77 percent of Republicans. Thats down from 88 percent the previous spring, but perhaps better than might be expected.

And Abbotts legions of supporters, James Huffines notably among them, are all but saying I told you so to his critics, from both left and right. Everyone loves a good comeback story, and Texas is writing one for the ages, James Huffines wrote in an op-ed in early May. Thanks to the perseverance of Texans and the steady hand of Gov. Greg Abbott, Texas is now poised for a major economic comeback.

After his brothers announcement that he would run for governor, James Huffines issued a statement to Texas Monthly. Like many families, particularly in recent times, ours has differences of opinions about politics, he wrote. While concluding that it would be wise not to talk about the familys political differences, he said I have a 25-year relationship with Greg Abbott, have supported him in every one of his campaigns, and long before this situation arose committed to do so again. I think the Governor has done an excellent job for Texas and I am confident he will continue to do so.

Spoken like a man who takes the long view. Don Huffines, by contrast, sees the current moment in apocalyptic terms. When we lose Texas, we lose the free world. That means we lost civilization as we know it, he told his audience in Plano in June. Time is not on our side.

In 2018, Nathan Johnson was a first-time political candidate with an eclectic background. He has a physics degree, practices law, and composes music, scoring the Japanese anime series Dragon Ball Z. At some campaign appearances, Johnson would draw the political spectrum on a whiteboard. Hed place himself left of center, and former senator John Carona, whom Huffines defeated in the 2014 Republican primary, to the right of center. Then hed walk past the edge of the whiteboard and say, Huffines is out here.

Dont expect Huffines to inch closer to the whiteboard. At the tea party event in January, he shared the stage with former state representative Jonathan Stickland, a founding member of the far-right House Freedom Caucus and an adviser to Huffines. Stickland talked about the necessity of expanding the Overton Windowa term describing the acceptable spectrum of political discussionto the right. The Monday after Huffines announced, Abbott ended federal pandemic-related unemployment assistance two months before it was due to expire. That Tuesday, he banned governmental entities, including public schools, from requiring masks. The next day, he signed the law banning abortion the moment a fetal heartbeat is detectedbefore most women know theyre pregnant. Amazing how quick he moves when he has a primary challenger, tweeted former state representative Matt Rinaldi, a Huffines ally.

Has Trumps endorsement slammed shut the Overton Window? Or must Abbott now more closely track Trump, lest he appear ungrateful or undeserving of his blessing?

Huffines is wounded, but even without Trumps support he has the resources to present Abbott with the most serious primary challenge of his career. He recently released the names of five hundred Republican grassroots leaders backing his candidacy, including anti-abortion, progun rights, and anti-vaccine activists, who can and will make a lot of noise. Trumps endorsement wont silence them.

Nor does it seem likely to keep West (and maybe also Miller) from joining the fray. Their entrance would splinter the anti-Abbott vote, possibly forcing Abbott into a runoff, an eventuality that would leave the governor even more reliant on Trumps grace.

Regardless, Abbott may have to pay a price for the Trump endorsement. The governor has in recent years tread a careful path with Trump, appearing always loyal but in a far lower key than Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick or Senator Ted Cruz. Now with Trumps generous and timely endorsement, Abbott has no choice but to become Trumps main squeeze in Texas. Abbotts polite and useful distance from Trump was crushed in Tuesdays embrace. On Monday, as if on cue, the governor issued a disaster declaration for 34 counties along or near the border, citing an increase in unauthorized immigrants. If Democrats mount a serious general election challenge, that could be a liability for Abbott.

In the near term, it also complicates the politics of Senate Bill 7, the Texas GOPs prized voter integrity bill imposing new restrictions on voting, especially for Texans of color and those living in cities. When at the end of the session, Democrats fled the House, breaking quorum and killing the bill, Huffines blamed the defeat on Abbotts failure of leadership. Abbott has already said he will add the legislation to the agenda in a special session. SB 7 and sister legislation being pressed and passed by Republicans in state after state are, in part, a consequence of Trumps loss and his success in persuading most Republicans voters, against all the evidence, that the 2016 election was stolen. But the GOP lawmakers behind SB 7 have carefully avoided invoking Trumps campaign as a reason for the bill; its author, Senator Bryan Hughes, cites fraud he alleges (again, without evidence) took place in the 2018 midterms, while other state lawmakers have stated explicitly that the 2020 elections in Texas were legitimate.

It may now be harder to keep Trump from casting a shadow on the proceedings. When the voting legislation returns to center stage, it will be at a special session called by Abbott, who Trump promised Texans in his endorsement is all in on Election Integrity. Hours before the Abbott endorsement, the New York Times Maggie Haberman tweeted that Trump has been telling a number of people hes in contact with that he expects he will get reinstated by August.

Meanwhile, Huffines continues to serve up Trump-grade tartare. Trump promised to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it. Huffines promises to finish the wall and have Texans pay for it. Im not asking permission from the federal government to secure Texass border, Huffines said. So far so good. No issue cuts closer to the bone for Texas Republicans than border security. But the Abbott ad writes itself. Trump: No Governor has done more to secure the Border and keep our communities safe than Greg Abbott.

Until Abbott touted Trumps endorsement Tuesday, the closest thing to an Abbott campaign response to the primary challenge was belittlement. The day after Huffines, who cuts a slight figure, announced, Abbott strategist Dave Carney tweeted, Can anyone remind me what the height restrictions are for 6 Flags rides?

Asked about the Carney tweet. Huffines was ready with a retort: Im tall enough, Huffines said. Tall enough to be governor.

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Don Huffines Plotted Governor Run as the Trump Guy. Then Trump Endorsed Greg Abbott. - Texas Monthly