Check out the originators of the Liberty Tree and friend of liberty

Rand Paul

U.S. Senator for Kentucky | I fight for the Constitution, individual liberty and the freedoms that make this country great.

Posted on December 16, 2021

Whoops! Cloth masks don’t really work? Someone should tell the social media censors

The Cato Institute reports, “Since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, many public health officials, political and social leaders, and major news media have urged people to wear face masks to reduce the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. In the United States, masking has become a flashpoint of controversy, with school boards and local governments facing fervent—and sometimes even threatening—demands either for or against mask mandates…

Yet, there is little consensus that masking—at least as commonly practiced in the United States, using cloth masks—is effective at suppressing various types of respiratory infection. In the surgical operating room context, a review by the Cochrane Collaboration—a widely respected nonprofit that provides comprehensive, evidence-based summaries on various medical topics—found 'no statistically significant difference in infection rates between the masked and unmasked group in any of the trials.' Another Cochrane review, of masking and influenza-like illness, found “that wearing a mask may make little or no difference to the outcome of influenza-like illness … compared to not wearing a mask.”

Read the entire report.

Posted on December 14, 2021

Facebook now claims its 'fact-checks' are just opinion?

John Stossel writes at the New York Post, “Facebook is a private company, so it can censor whomever it wants. But what Facebook is doing lately is just sleazy.

Recently, I sued them because they defamed me. They, along with one of their ‘fact-checkers,’ a group called Science Feedback, lied about me and continue to lie about me.

Now Facebook has responded to my lawsuit in court.

Amazingly, their lawyers now claim that Facebook’s ‘fact-checks’ are merely ‘opinion’ and therefore immune from defamation.

Wait — Facebook’s fact-checks are just ‘opinion’?! I thought fact-checks are statements of fact.”

Read the entire column.

Posted on December 13, 2021

Prayers for Kentucky

Posted on December 11, 2021

Time for Republicans to take back the Senate and House and end this nonsense

The New York Post reports, “The Congressional Budget Office projected Friday that President Biden’s sweeping social spending bill would add $3 trillion to the federal deficit once so-called ‘budget gimmicks’ that critics like Sen. Joe Manchin say hide the true cost are stripped out.

The nonpartisan CBO’s estimate came in response to a request from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), the ranking member of the House Budget Committee, for a report — or ‘score’ — of a version of the Build Back Better Act that would not wind down programs including universal child care, an expanded child tax credit, an increase in the cap on state and local tax deductions, and health insurance subsidies.”

Read the entire story.

Posted on December 10, 2021

Sorry Tony, the only requirement for my family's Christmas is having read the Constitution

Fauci: “That’s the reason why people should, if they invite people over their home, essentially ask and maybe require that people show evidence that they are vaccinated."

Posted on December 9, 2021

Republicans musn't enable Biden's overspending by waiving PAYGO

My latest at The Washington Examiner, “For months, Republicans gave President Joe Biden’s social spending bill the accurate label: “the Democrats’ reckless tax and spending spree.” Republicans, in unison, opposed the $2 trillion spending spree Democrats passed this spring. But now, Republican leadership is pushing a bill to forgive all that spending.

According to the law that governs Congress’s budget process, this spending has to be offset by equal cuts from somewhere else. The law is called PAYGO. But Republican leadership and Democrats are going to waive PAYGO, allowing Biden’s spending spree to become debt instead of being offset by spending cuts.”

Read the entire column.

Posted on December 9, 2021

How did your senator vote on selling U.S. weapons to Saudi Arabia?

The Hill reports, "The Senate on Tuesday night rejected a bipartisan effort to block President Biden's $650 billion arms sale to the Saudi government.

Senators voted 30-67 on the resolution from Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) falling short of the simple majority needed to overcome the procedural hurdle.

Supporters of the resolution pushed to block the arms sale, which includes 280 air-to-air missiles made by Raytheon Technologies, due to Saudi Arabia's role in Yemen's civil war, including an air and naval blockade of Yemen.

'The U.S. should end all arms sales to the Saudis until they end their blockade of Yemen. President Biden said he would change the Trump policy of supporting Saudi's war in Yemen, but it's not at all that apparent that policy has changed,' Paul said ahead of the vote."

HOW DID YOUR SENATOR VOTE?

Grouped By Vote Position

YEAs ---30

Baldwin (D-WI)

Booker (D-NJ)

Brown (D-OH)

Cantwell (D-WA)

Casey (D-PA)

Duckworth (D-IL)

Durbin (D-IL)

Gillibrand (D-NY)

Heinrich (D-NM)

Hirono (D-HI)

Kaine (D-VA)

Lee (R-UT)

Lujan (D-NM)

Markey (D-MA)

Merkley (D-OR)

Murray (D-WA)

Ossoff (D-GA)

Padilla (D-CA)

Paul (R-KY)

Peters (D-MI)

Sanders (I-VT)

Schatz (D-HI)

Schumer (D-NY)

Smith (D-MN)

Stabenow (D-MI)

Tester (D-MT)

Van Hollen (D-MD)

Warnock (D-GA)

Warren (D-MA)

Wyden (D-OR)

NAYs ---67

Barrasso (R-WY)

Bennet (D-CO)

Blackburn (R-TN)

Blumenthal (D-CT)

Blunt (R-MO)

Boozman (R-AR)

Braun (R-IN)

Burr (R-NC)

Capito (R-WV)

Cardin (D-MD)

Carper (D-DE)

Cassidy (R-LA)

Collins (R-ME)

Coons (D-DE)

Cornyn (R-TX)

Cortez Masto (D-NV)

Cramer (R-ND)

Crapo (R-ID)

Cruz (R-TX)

Daines (R-MT)

Ernst (R-IA)

Feinstein (D-CA)

Fischer (R-NE)

Graham (R-SC)

Grassley (R-IA)

Hagerty (R-TN)

Hassan (D-NH)

Hawley (R-MO)

Hickenlooper (D-CO)

Hoeven (R-ND)

Hyde-Smith (R-MS)

Inhofe (R-OK)

Johnson (R-WI)

Kelly (D-AZ)

Kennedy (R-LA)

King (I-ME)

Klobuchar (D-MN)

Lummis (R-WY)

Manchin (D-WV)

Marshall (R-KS)

McConnell (R-KY)

Menendez (D-NJ)

Moran (R-KS)

Murkowski (R-AK)

Murphy (D-CT)

Portman (R-OH)

Reed (D-RI)

Risch (R-ID)

Romney (R-UT)

Rosen (D-NV)

Rounds (R-SD)

Rubio (R-FL)

Sasse (R-NE)

Scott (R-FL)

Scott (R-SC)

Shaheen (D-NH)

Shelby (R-AL)

Sinema (D-AZ)

Sullivan (R-AK)

Thune (R-SD)

Tillis (R-NC)

Toomey (R-PA)

Tuberville (R-AL)

Warner (D-VA)

Whitehouse (D-RI)

Wicker (R-MS)

Young (R-IN)

Not Voting - 3

Cotton (R-AR)

Lankford (R-OK)

Leahy (D-VT)

Posted on December 8, 2021

Biden and Fauci are freaking out instead of making scientific decisions about omicron variant

From my latest column at Fox News: “Once again, we find ourselves in a situation in which we have a new COVID variant. Rather than making rational, scientific decisions, Dr. Fauci and the Biden administration have jumped to assume the worst, and have begun implementing restrictions with the ever-looming threat of mandates.

We really don’t know much about the omicron variant. It could have different mutations, different symptoms, and require different treatments. But rather than freaking out, we should take the next week or two to see what becomes of it.

President Biden on the other hand, has already followed suit with Dr. Fauci in foolishly announcing public health policy that is not based on any science. Mandating a COVID test within 24 hours of international travel, ignores the fact that rapid tests for patients without symptoms give false readings about half the time.

Meanwhile, medical officials in South Africa, where the variant originated, have been shocked at the knee-jerk reaction from countries across the world in imposing travel restrictions and renewing mandates.

Even Dr. Angelique Coetzee, who discovered the new variant, has said countries, including the United States, are ‘panicking unnecessarily.’ Dr. Coetzee has also said, ‘the simple truth is: we don’t know yet anywhere near enough about omicron to make such judgments or to impose such policies."

Read the entire column.

Posted on December 7, 2021

America must stop enabling the Saudi war in Yemen

My new column at The American Conservative: "Saudi Arabia’s air and naval blockade of Yemen is an abomination. For years now, ships that would otherwise carry food, fuel, and medicine to the country have been turned away by the Saudi-led coalition, depriving the Yemeni people of the necessities to sustain civilization. Saudi Arabia’s intervention in the Yemeni civil war is a chilling example of the cruelty of warfare by starvation. According to the United Nations, five million people are one step away from succumbing to famine and disease, and ten million more are right behind them.

But, this week, the Senate can start the process of ending this crisis by passing my legislation to cancel an American arms sale to Saudi Arabia that aids and abets the subjugation of the Yemeni people.

The children of Yemen who survive Saudi Arabia’s barbaric blockade will inevitably tell their sons and daughters of the horrors of their youth. And those sons and daughters will tell their sons and daughters. Through oral tradition, a thousand generations of Yemenis will know of the crown prince’s ruthlessness. And they will also know that it was the Americans that sold him the weapons to wage his murderous campaign."

Read the entire column.

Posted on December 6, 2021

Vaccine mandate block is good news for health care workers who take care of us

"A federal judge in Louisiana issued a nationwide preliminary injunction Tuesday against President Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health care workers...

'If the executive branch is allowed to usurp the power of the legislative branch to make laws, two of the three powers conferred by our Constitution would be in the same hands,' Judge Terry A. Doughty wrote. 'If human nature and history teach anything, it is that civil liberties face grave risks when governments proclaim indefinite states of emergency.'

'During a pandemic such as this one, it is even more important to safeguard the separation of powers set forth in our Constitution to avoid erosion of our liberties,' he added."

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