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Rep. Thomas Massie Versus the Coronavirus Power-Grabbers in Government
Rep. Thomas Massie Versus the Coronavirus Power-Grabbers in Government
Fear of coronavirus, or the use of such fear being present among the people to justify expanding control, is driving decisions in much of American local, state, and national governments. Limiting international travel, prohibiting people from eating or drinking in restaurants and bars, imposing curfews, ordering “nonessential” businesses shut, and banning gatherings of more than a certain number of individuals are among the mandates governments have put in place in the name of fighting coronavirus.
This has all happened while extraordinary danger from coronavirus is not established and government actions being imposed, which carry health dangers of their own, tend not to be clearly helpful for countering what danger there may be from coronavirus.
However, not everyone in government is doing the coronavirus Chicken Little dance. United States House of Representatives member Thomas Massie (R-KY), who also is an Advisory Board member for the Ron Paul Institute, has been pretty much saying “hold on there guys” to fellow politicians who are rushing to disrespect the liberty of Americans in the name of countering coronavirus.
In a new video interview with host Duke Pesta at The New American, Massie strongly cautions against efforts to increase government power, and to restrict individuals’ exercise of liberty, in response to the virus du jour. Massie’s position contrasts with that of other politicians in Washington, DC. Among them, Massie declares in the interview, “there are almost no discussions about the limits of state and federal power.”
One may hope that once the coronavirus is dealt with the expanded powers of governments will fade away. Not so quick, counters Massie. Politicians have wished for some of these government power expansions for a long time, notes Massie. Many of such powers can be expected to continue on or to reemerge again and again, such as in successive flu seasons or in response to hurricanes.
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Decades of Unconstitutional Wars
Decades of Unconstitutional Wars
How did we reach this situation so far removed from the US Constitution’s dictate that Congress alone decides if the US goes to war, as well as what is the scope of any such wars? Constitutional scholar Louis Fisher examines this question in detail in his article “Unconstitutional Wars from Truman Forward” in the latest issue of the Center for the Study of Statesmanship’s journal Humanitas.
In his article, Fisher, who is a member of the Ron Paul Institute Academic Board, lays out the clear direction in the Constitution that it is Congress alone that has the power to place the US into war as well as to define the limits of any war it authorizes. Fisher supports this argument with a discussion of both the wording of the Constitution and context including statements of Founding Fathers.
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Dennis Kucinich Discusses the ‘Permanent Government’ behind US Foreign Intervention
Dennis Kucinich Discusses the ‘Permanent Government’ behind US Foreign Intervention
In a recent interview with host Wilmer Leon at the Inside the Issues show, former presidential candidate and United States House of Representatives Member Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) discussed how what Kucinich terms the “permanent government” has worked to ensure the United States continues pursuing destructive foreign interventions and to keep America “at the precipice of a much wider war” irrespective of who is president.
“There’s an unbroken line going back over the last 30 years where American presidents have continued to proceed with an interventionism that has been counterproductive,” states Kucinich. This “continued commitment to a failed foreign policy of interventionism, of unilateralism, of first strike,” Kucinich continues, “imperils America,” “does not make us safer,” “separates us from the world community,” “has people looking to extract vengeance on Americans,” and “has made the world a more dangerous place.”
Saying we need to look beyond the personalities of the succession of US presidents from George W. Bush to Barack Obama to Donald Trump, Kucinich recommends we “look at the foreign policy establishment of the United States of America” that, he explains, includes people in the State Department who have a neoconservative ideology, in the Pentagon who are dedicated to the military-industrial complex, and in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) who can “conjure conflicts” and “try to justify the further involvement of the military and the State Department.” This, Kucinich says, “is the permanent government, which we see reflected through Democrat and Republican administrations, no matter whether they are so-called conservative or liberal or populist; it’s all the same.”
While this “permanent government” push for US intervention overseas has produced many harmful consequences, some of which Kucinich discusses in the interview, it also, he argues, produces the additional danger that it “keeps us at the precipice of a much wider war.”
Dennis Kucinich: We Must Challenge the ‘Two-Party Duopoly’ Committed to War
Dennis Kucinich: We Must Challenge the ‘Two-Party Duopoly’ Committed to War
In the interview, Kucinich discusses his work to expose the misinformation used to argue for US government interventions overseas before and during the Iraq War and, later, concerning the US effort to assist in the overthrow of the Syria government.
Regarding the Iraq War, Kucinich, who is an Advisory Board member for the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, explains that his research showed that “Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, nothing to do with al-Qaeda’s role in 9/11, didn’t have any connection to the anthrax attack, didn’t have the intention or the capability of attacking the United States, and didn’t have the weapons of mass destruction that were being claimed.” This information, Kucinich relates, he provided to US Congress members in an October 2, 2002 report showing “there was no cause for war.”
Despite Kucinich and other individuals’ efforts to stop the march toward war, Congress passed an authorization for use of military force (AUMF) against Iraq later in October, and the invasion of Iraq commenced in March of 2003.
Kucinich, in the interview, places the Iraq War, with its costs including trillions in US government spending and the death of over a million Iraqis, in the context of “this American imperium, this idea that somehow we have the right to establish ourselves anywhere we want” including with “over 800 bases in 132 countries” and to go around the world “looking for dragons to slay while we ignore our own problems here at home.”
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