1044 days ago
The opinion polls suggest that Americans now rate Joe Biden as the worst President Ever. After more than 40 years Jimmy Carter has lost his crown and can breathe a sigh of relief. Folks see through the lie that Trump caused vast covid deaths as the body bag toll has gone through the roof under Biden – this was a disease not a political football weaponised by the Dems in 2020. Inflation is is the thief in the night and Americans feel robbed every day as they buy gasoline or groceries, just as they feel humiliated by events in Afghanistan.
1232 days ago
Ron Paul for President! Sadly he never made it past the Republican Primaries. America is not ready for a honest, sound money libertarian yet. But the good doctor is still my hero. In this new video, Dr Paul discusses the need to reduce the size and scope of government. He argues that people today rely on the government too much, and politicians can’t resist taking advantage of this dependence. It’s like an addiction, and stopping it is a problem. The plunge protection team has done a miraculous job of propping up the market. But, unfortunately, Paul argues, the dollar will continue to decline, and inflation will result in the prices of everything going up.
1373 days ago
Jim Forsythe served in the USAF and campaigned for the great Ron Paul, my hero, back in 2008. So he can do no wrong in my book although his participation in the recent #silverrsqueeze is perhaps a minor blemish. Jim says that learning from Ron Paul helped him understand the economic system that the world is under, and “The bigger problems facing the U.S. that are internal.” He has been a firm gold and silver believer since 2007, investing in both miners and physical. He says, “People need to make their own choice to have gold and silver as money.”
1397 days ago
His father, Ron Paul, is my hero and the Senator for Kentucky was in full flow yesterday as the impeachment process begun. It is a sham and quoting the words Trump used in full and not selectively on January 6, as the BBC opts to do, Rand showed that clearly. This process will not unite America it is just another demonstration of the #TrumpDerangementSyndrome still gripping the liberal elites and, of course, the BBC. that is why Trump will not be impeached as the process needs a 2/3 majority which it will not get. It is thus pointless as well as a sham. Take eight minutes out of your day and enjoy:
1412 days ago
To we libertarians former Congressman Dr Ron Paul is our idol. The good doctor has campaigned against pointless US wars, for sound money and budget responsibility, against the Patriot Act and for free speech and to protect the constitution for years. In recent times he has questioned the efficacy of masks and lockdown but also suggested that the damage they cause to liberty and the economy is not worth it. He is a good guy. He is not inciting violence, he abhors it. He is a brave voice often castigated by his own Party, the Republicans, and one that should be heard. But facebook does not want that voice heard. Big tech is now deciding who can or cannot question Government but it is only libertarians and conservatives who it is muzzling.
1433 days ago
Old Ron Paul, my ultimate libertarian hero, would be proud of his son today. Senator Rand gave a speech which tears apart the lunacy of Modern Monetary Theory, the money printing that is happening in the US and, on steroids, here in the UK. The left leaning mainstream media, notably, the ghastly and innumerate BBC, lavishes praise on Rishi Sunak for his wisdom in pursuing these policies, indeed the media and political classes enage in obvious GroupThink in supporting Sunak’s folly. The fourth estate needs to listen to Rand and then to challenge the Government rigorously. Of course it will not. MMT is madness. Senator Paul explains why, in language so simple even a BBC economics correspondent can understand it, and also has the real answers. Enjoy
2332 days ago
I have noted time and time again that the West has been backing the wrong side in Syria. And that side is now losing ground at an alarming rate much to the joy of native Syrians. Now that mortars belonging to the Free Syrian Army, aka Al Qaeda, the folks Call Me Dave Cameron termed “moderates”, no longer pound Damascus, the Western media begrudgingly and rarely shows footage of a capital that is safe, prospering, free and happy. Now President Assad helped by Russia is seeking to seize control of the South West of Syria, the area bordering Israel and Jordan.
2372 days ago
A kind reader in the land of the free emails with praise about my article on the Irish murder referendum HERE and makes a couple of suggestions. The first is that i should move to Texas and run for office.
3034 days ago
Jeepers!. Folks must have thought I was a deluded lefty as the Mrs sent me off to Sainsbury's with a rafia bag emblazoned with the name and logo of her "new" university on it, so as not to use any plastic bags. It could have been worse, the Mrs does have one from a recent conference she attended. It boasts the emblem of "The British Sociology Association." It might as well say "mad middle class Guardian reading lunatic."
3516 days ago
None of the British parties has the slightest intention of eradicating the UK budget deficit - they are all Money Tree worshippers. And our record on free speech and civil liberties over the past few years has been dire. Rand Paul ( son of Ron Paul) is different and yesterday announced he was running for US President.
Come January this website will be edited for a short while from New Hampshire as I pay a holiday visit to experience the primary there - West Wing junkies will know how exciting that can be. All supporters of liberty and sound money should stand with Rand. This website does. Watch him announce his candidacy yesterday and compare his message with the banal issue evading words of our own leaders. Rand Paul for President!
3518 days ago
We all knew it was going to happen but today Rand Paul has announced that he is running for President. The Senator is the son of the great Ron Paul (pictured) and being a bit more of a politician than his Dad makes his libertarianism slightly compromised but he is still streets ahead of the field. In his first campaign email he promises that when he wins he will pledge:
Term limits to get rid of the career politicians.
Require Congress to read legislation before they actually vote on it—read the bills!
Audit the Fed—we deserve to know what's happening with our money.
Pass a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution—no more adding trillions in debt—time to pay it down.
Boldly overhaul the tax code—no more loopholes for the biggest corporations with the best lobbyists—give workers a tax cut.
The last point is great. Libertarians
3601 days ago
I never thought of myself as a leftie. My hardline euroscepticism, belief in slashing taxes and slashing state spending, ripping up the rule book on welfare, allowing free markets to operate unfettered, belief in total free speech always made me think that I was really very right wing indeed in a 100% libertarian way. I think those folks who read my articles would be minded to agree as would the bunch of mad lefties who work with my wife. But it appears that by UKIP standards I am just a mad leftie myself. My crime… words fail me.
3766 days ago
My weekly video postcard finds me sitting on my newly constructed eco-loo. More on that in a later photo article.
The main theme of this postcard is the folly of Western meddling abroad. It was the great Dr Ron Paul (pictured) who coined the term blowback. The theme runs through Iraq, Afghanistan and is now playing out in Syria, Libya and the Ukraine.
When will our leaders learn and stop lying?
The Christopher Booker article I refer to is HERE
My weekly financial video postcard covers the uncertainty of earnings where margins are apparently supra-normal. Yes this means Quindell & ASOS. I also look at why the market mood has changed. It can be viewed HERE
Tom Winnifrith has just published his new e-book, The 49 Golden Rules of Making Money from oil, gas and mining shares. You can buy it on Amazon for £6.25 or you can order a FREE copy HERE
3815 days ago
The calls for intervention in Iraq to stop the uprising by Islamofascist nutters grow louder by the day. We were wrong to invade Iraq illegally in the first place (thanks a bunch war criminal Blair) and we would be wrong to intervene in the latest mess.
In this video Tom explains the Ron Paul theory of “blowback” and the folly of Western intervention at every level.
Tom’s financial postcard covers Quindell, Tern and why an RNS lie on the AIM Cesspit always matters. It can be viewed here.
3843 days ago
Sadly the good Doctor Paul has stated that he has no plans – at this time – to run for President again in 2016. He will be 80 by then and one can see good reasons why he does not wish to. Even President Reagan was only 77 when leaving office. And so the baton passes to his son Rand who is a 51 year old Senator who shares his father’s beliefs in the constitution, liberty, small Government, sound money and in withdrawing US troops from abroad. But is Rand a new Ron?
He does not have the charisma of his father that is for sure. But then he also does not carry a bit of the baggage his Dad did either. However hard the Republican establishment tries it will be hard to smear Rand.
In my heart I hope that Ron will give it one more go. There are numerous online petitions urging him to reconsider. He still has a strong organisation around him, a well-oiled machine. But my head tells me that the way he has talked about Rand running and the obvious signs are that Rand will run. He is for instance off to Iowa again in June – that is the first state to vote for the Republican nominee.
And so what chance does Rand have?
3919 days ago
Tom Winnifrith returns with a video postcard which inevitably starts with Ukraine and the concept of blowback.
Tom refers to his strong sympathy for President Putin & Russia which he explains in detail HERE
But he goes on to discuss the wider idea of blowback – a Ron Paul concept – and how it marks the failed foreign policy of the West and has to stop.
Tom also covers the UKIP Spring conference – it lamentable failings in policy areas but Tom ends with a concession that he will probably vote UKIP anyway on May 22nd. He explains why.
Tom’s financial postcard covers Ukraine and the probably market sell off Monday. Is this a buying opportunity? No! Tom also covers lunacy in tech valuations and Warren Buffett and sex. It can be viewed HERE
3920 days ago
I doubt that this will be popular but the mess that is the Ukraine today is not the fault of Russia but of liberal leaders in the West who just cannot stop meddling in other folk’s affairs. As for the response of Vladimir Putin and Russia, I have every sympathy with the old tyrant. On this occasion his actions are utterly defensible.
Let’s start with the overthrow of the crooked former President Yanukovych. There is no doubt that he was looting state coffers and was not a very nice man. He was, however, democratically elected. The EU has been trying to get the Ukraine into its orbit with a treaty of co-operation for a couple of years. The President was not helpful. So the West meddles.
The West does not really understand that the Ukraine is not exactly a homogenous block. It should perhaps have looked back to the last War when most Ukrainians fought alongside the Russians but a good number fought either for an Independent Ukraine or actually fought with Germany. But heck that is history so who cares, the EU marches on.
And so we supported tacitly and indeed verbally those who wished to overthrow the President. Senior EU politicians flocked to Ukraine to offer support. Why? It was none of our god damn business? Look at the speeches of US Politicians such as John Kerry but also the truly abysmal EU Foreign Secretary Baroness Ashton. As in Syria we back the rebels against an unpleasant regime just assuming that your enemy’s enemy is your best pal. As in Syria we are wrong.
I accept that many of those who protested in Kiev are good folks who would feel at home in a liberal Western democracy. But the hard-core, the ones that held firm against the riot police? Think again. Those hard core are the militant wings of political parties that are now represented in Parliament. Watch some recent interviews. I quote the leader of one of the largest militias (interviewed on the BBC) “We are nationalists, we want a country for Ukrainians…that means without any Russians…or Jews.” These are the folks
3921 days ago
A friend of mine from my Shoreditch days says that he is heading off to a weekend of eating drinking and libertarianism on the 15th March and would I care to go. It looks great but then comes the libertarian dilemma.
If you are a pure thinking individual I would urge you to check out the Freedom Festival here
There are some entertaining speakers: Mark Littlewood, Norman Tebbit, Toby Young, Dan Hannan and I am sure that it will be great fun. However:
a) I am not convinced that this is ideologically pure enough for a true libertarian. I see there is a debate “is immigration a boon or a burden?” If you score straight A’s on the Ron Paul crystal pure test you would not need that debate, the answer is obvious. There is another debate “is the conservative family falling apart?” Heck, when did we join that family to start with?
b) Maybe I am a libertarian because I hate the idea of being organised. One of the joys of Shoreditch life right inside the triangle was that the residents were a pretty crazed bunch. On a day to day basis I had nothing in common with the Lebanese cookery writer for the FT, the fat American artist gay couple, the super geek IT guy from Morgan Stanley or the Australian architect with his French wife who’d been there since the sixties. I struggle to remember the other residents but occasionally we’d come together like a Wild West town
4082 days ago
My handset is bust and so I had to buy a new one – anyone who has tried to text me in vain over the past week you can now text away as thanks to Chitter Chatter on Leather Lane I am now once again in communication. I wandered in wearing a Time To Leave T-shirt and the cute Asian bird behind the counter asked me to explain. At which point she proudly said she was a supporter of the Libertarian party.
Off we went. The bird, her colleague and I. The NHS, Ron Paul, Welfare, Starbucks and tax, we covered it all. What an enlightened phone shop it is. If you ever need a new handset, served by a cute & enlightened bird, show your support you know where to go.
To engage in conversation with good looking young ladies of an enlightened disposition you can buy your very own “good looking young ladies of an enlightened disposition magnet” It’s Time to Leave T-shirt here
4102 days ago
I am proud of our MPs. I never thought I’d write that but in voting not to go to war 285 of them did the right thing. And at so many levels.
At a practical level we do not have definitive evidence that it was the Assad regime rather than the Islamofascist/Al Qaeda inspired opposition that used chemical weapons. If I was a betting man I’d bet heavily that it was Assad but there is no proof. Waging a war without proof, relying on Dodgy dossiers is oh so terribly Tony Blair and it is wrong. That is why Blair is a war criminal and brought shame on the UK. To his credit Cameron did not behave in that fashion.
And at another practical level what will missile strikes achieve? They will kill people but will they knock out the portable carriers of chemical weapons? No. Will they cause regime change? No. Will they suck others into a wider conflict? Possibly yes. Will they kill people innocent & guilty? Yes. Will they stop massacres? No. What, I ask the appalling John Kerry will missile attacks achieve?
Whose side should we be on in Syria? That of the butcher Assad or Al Qaeda? Bother are appalling and evil. John Kerry and David Cameron might feel up to playing God but I don’t.
As the great Ron Paul has been pointing out for years
4194 days ago
I see that the EU is lifting its embargo on arms sales to Syria at the insistence of Britain and France. Why UK trade policy should be dictated by the Evil Empire escapes me but that is not the issue here – the concern is that the UK is set to give weapons to the FSA ( the coalition fighting President Assad). This is sheer insanity.
For the past few months the Western powers have tried to show that Assad is a truly evil man committing war crimes on a daily basis. It is surely only a matter of Time before Tony Blair pops up to suggest that he has Weapons of Mass Destruction capable of hitting Britain in 45 minutes. The agenda all along has been to supply arms to the rebels.
Of course evidence on the ground shows that both sides in Syria are committing atrocities on a daily basis. William Hague may feel able to play God and decide that one side is better than the other but I cannot. Both seem utterly loathsome.
One thing that is clear
4315 days ago
Not all musicians are deluded lefties. It is just that folks like Bono tend to tar the whole vocation with a brush of madness. Unable to sleep I find myself working on a new play list selection for the quirkiest Celtic Italian restaurant in Clerkenwell, Real Man Pizza Company. Already we have the punk list for Monday evenings, plus three different eighties play lists of around 250 tracks which run the rest of the time. But now it is time for something a bit different. And I seek your help here.
The criteria for qualification is easy: I must like the song, the singer or singers must not be associated with any daft causes (ask yourself does Bono support a cause, if so it is by definition daft) and the song must have some sort of message. Top of the list naturally is Ron Paul groupie Aimee Allen with the three tracks below and I’m in Love with Ann Coulter, also below. Any other suggestions in the comments box. Hopefully the list will be playing by St Valentine’s day.
Aimee Allen ( or indeed Ann Coulter) can be my Valentine any day.
4342 days ago
Equities have got off to a flying start to 2013 but do I believe that the surge will continue? Sort of Yes and sort on No. It is complicated. I certainly do not assume that buying any old stock and expecting it to surge will be a way to make money this year. It never is and 2013 will be tough in many ways.
Part of the early January surge is a relief rally thanks to the US not falling off the Fiscal Cliff. Well not yet anyway. Tough decisions with regard to spending have not been taken, merely postponed. The fundamental issue of America’s deficit and its ever growing debt has not been addressed; Ron Paul puts it thus:
Under the sequestration plan, government spending will increase by 1.6 trillion over the next eight years. Congress calls this a cut because without sequestration spending will increase by 1.7 trillion over the same time frame. Either way it is an increase in spending.
Yet even these minuscule cuts in the “projected rate of spending” were too much for Washington politicians to bear. The last minute “deal” was the worst of both worlds: higher taxes on nearly all Americans now and a promise to revisit these modest reductions in spending growth two months down the road. We were here before, when in 2011 Republicans demanded these automatic modest decreases in government spending down the road in exchange for a massive increase in the debt ceiling. As the time drew closer, both parties clamored to avoid even these modest moves. Make no mistake: the spending addiction is a bipartisan problem.
4400 days ago
Well I told you so. My heart in the end went, marginally, for Romney and as I see deluded lefties across the media world delighting in another four years of hopey change I feel Romney’s pain. But my head told me Obama would win and so I have called it as an Obama victory from the moment it became clear he was going to face Mitt. I never flinched in that – whilst other conservative writers claimed Mitt had momentum and would inch it, this pundit got it 100% right. I shall cover the political and coverage aspects later but starting with the economy. Obama’s victory is not very good news for the USA.
4486 days ago
Mitt Romney has selected his choice for Vice President, his running mate. But picking Congressman Paul Ryan will not save him from electoral defeat in November. Obama is 7 points ahead in the polls and will win. At one level I say this with sadness as I think Obama is awful. At another with disinterest as I also think Romney is pretty dreadful.
Let’s start with Paul Ryan. He is young and photogenic and best known for his plan to balance the budget. He describes himself as a devotee of libertarian goddess Ayn Rand in a desperate attempt to pick up the Ron Paul constituency. But this is desperate stuff. It will not work.
Those of us who think Ron Paul is the answer to America’s problems do so because he ( as a true Ayn Rand devotee) would repeal legislation which has suppressed civil liberties (notably the Patriot Act), would end foreign wars and by cutting defence spending (20% of Government spending) as well as spending elsewhere really could balance the budget.
I have read Karl Marx. That does not make me a Marxist.
4497 days ago
The Daily Mail yesterday carried graphic and, I am convinced genuine, images of events in Syria showing men held semi naked quivering with fear as they are led off and machine gunned to death in an act which can only be described as mass murder. The crowd cheers. These men were soldiers of the Assad regime captured by rebel fighters. I am sure that the Assad regime acts equally as badly. But that is not really the point.
Assorted loons who learn nothing from history have been suggesting for a while that the West should intervene in Syria. The frightful Mrs Clinton has offered up her suggestions on how we can help while David Owen (Dr Death, remember him?) and John McCain actually think we should engage militarily. Heaven help us. There are two reasons why we should just stay out of this and let natural events take their course.
The first is that both sides appear to be equally loathsome.
4499 days ago
I am biased. I want the Republicans to pick Ron Paul as their Presidential nominee and for him to thrash Obama, who I despise, in November. Paul will stop all the wars, bring US troops back home, slash Government spending and repeal fascist measures like the Patriot Act. So I would love the current presumed Republican nominee Mitt Romney to come a cropper before he is formerly selected at the GOP convention in Tampa as – in policy terms – I see him as pretty much 100% aligned with Obama.
But the British reaction to his London “gaffes” makes me embarrassed to be British and not embarrassed for Mitt but rather sympathetic. However, there is another matter though where I think (and hope) he does come unstuck – his personal tax position. That is now looking serious enough to potentially derail his Presidential ambitions altogether. That is the real Romney story of the last 2 weeks
Before he arrived in London, Romney said that he wondered if the City was ready for the Games, what with the Border Security threatening to go on strike and G4S not appearing to have security under control. As it happens those are very legitimate points which the UK press had themselves had a field day with. But when Romney makes the same points it is a gaffe, twitter trends with #Romneyshambles and Fleet Street goes on the attack. It is said it is not “Diplomatic.” Maybe but it is fair comment. Is it that outrageous for a politician to tell the truth?
4512 days ago
This year all eyes have been on Europe. In a recent poll even most Guardian readers now accept that the EU is not good for Britain and that joining the Euro would be a disaster. “I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.” I cannot put it better than the gospel of Luke (King James version natch). Even the most deluded of Euro loon (Charles Kennedy, after lunchtime?) must now accept that Greece, Spain and Portugal are bust and that Italy and France are heading that way. Not surprisingly the Euro is tanking, the dollar looks strong and the world seems to think that the Old World has a monopoly on insurmountable problems. It does not. The USA is in the same boat as Europe and that boat is called the Titanic.
Now I accept that Europe has its own particular issues. A fixed currency for uncompetitive economies is a killer (for them). A genetic aversion to hard work, addiction to welfare-ism and the need for regular fixes of industrial action ( i.e. inaction) across swathes of the Southern part of the continent post challenges that, in the current set-up, are insurmountable.
But the US also faces challenges. Some of those it has in common with Europe. I no more believe the stated NAV of most of the big American banks than I do that of Barclays.
4536 days ago
How long ago was it that we were reading in the liberal media about nice young Egyptians urging President Mubarak to quit via facebook and twitter? Gushingly the BBC poured its love on these nice young people who would take Egypt into a new age of liberal democracy. And the western powers (led by that idiot Hilary Clinton, but with the full support of our own idiots , Hague, Cameron, Milliband and the dwarves who run the Evil Empire in Brussels) told Mubarak to step aside. Some of us predicted what would happen next and lo it came to pass. It has not taken long.
