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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:February 11, 2022Contact: Press_Paul@paul.senate.gov, 202-224-4343

WASHINGTON, D.C. Recently, U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, recognized Cruise Customs of Shepherdsville, Kentucky, as the Senate Small Business of the Week.

Dr. Paul entered the following into the Congressional Record:

Mr. PAUL. Mr. President, as Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, each week I recognize an outstanding Kentucky small business that exemplifies the American entrepreneurial spirit. This week, it is my privilege to recognize the small business, Cruise Customs of Shepherdsville, Kentucky, as the Senate Small Business of the Week.

It is not every week that I have the privilege of honoring a veteran-owned small business, but when I do, it is with profound respect and gratitude not only for this Kentucky entrepreneur, but for our men and women in uniform. Cruise Customs was started by Chris Cruise, a veteran paratrooper who served in the 82nd Airborne Division during Operation Iraqi Freedom. After serving his country, like many veterans Chris Cruise returned to the U.S. carrying with him the traumas of war. Woodworking became a sort of therapy for him, and he combined that passion for working with his hands with his deeply-rooted patriotism, and founded Cruise Customs in 2017.

Cruise Customs not only honors the great nation that we live in, it also pays tribute to the wonderful state of Kentucky. The idea behind his business came from Chris and his wife Ambers desire to create something that honored both the nation that he fought for, and his wifes native state. The final product was a large American flag constructed from the wood used in old Kentucky bourbon barrels. While bourbon-barrel flags continue to be their most popular item, the business has expanded their scope of products offered. The Cruises patriotic mission has remained at the heart of their business throughout its steady growth, as they broadened their service to the veteran community and to their local area when Cruise Customs unique craftsmanship gained national recognition.

The whole Cruise Customs team use their dedication for service as inspiration for designing new products. These days, one can buy Chris signature bourbon-barrel flag not only in a variety of sizes, one can also find various flags with a different colored stripe running through the center of the flag. The colors symbolize the business support for various causes: blue, in honor of our nations police officers, red, to show their support for our nations fire fighters, pink, to spread breast cancer awareness and to champion its survivors. While these limited edition pieces stand out against their array of merchandise, the America One Heartbeat flag is perhaps their most impactful creation.

Their America One Heartbeat flag, a limited edition piece displaying the EKG sign of a heartbeat down the center stripe, was designed by Chris and Amber Cruise during the early days of the pandemic. Always wanting to give back to their community, Cruise Customs donated all proceeds from the sale of their America One Heartbeat flags to the medical frontline heroes at Norton Healthcare and U of L Health in Louisville. This noble idea quickly gained national attention, which allowed Cruise Customs to sell over 4,500 of these flags and donate over $70,000 to their local medical community.

Cruise Customs dedication to their community has not gone unnoticed. Last year Chris Cruise was named one of Louisville Business Firsts Business Impact Award Nominees. Chris and Amber Cruise have also broadened their venture by opening and co-directing Kentuckys first local chapter of USA Cares, a nonprofit dedicated to providing military families with financial and advocacy support during their time of need. From serving his country, to founding a small business dedicated to giving back to the veteran community, Chris has consistently displayed a generous and patriotic spirit which permeates throughout his business and his family. Congratulations to Chris and Amber Cruise and the entire Cruise Customs team. I thank you for your brave service to this country and for your charitable spirit. I wish them the best of luck and look forward to watching their continued growth and success in Kentucky.

As Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, Dr. Paul continues the tradition of honoring Americas small businesses and entrepreneurs. The Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship oversees proposed legislation on matters relating to the Small Business Administration and investigates all problems relating to Americas small businesses.

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Dr. Rand Paul Honors Cruise Customs of Shepherdsville, Kentucky, as the Senate Small Business of the Week | Senator Rand Paul - Senator Rand Paul

On Sunday the Canadian police finally cleared away anti-vaccine demonstrators who had been blocking the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, a key commercial route that normally carries more than $300 million a day in international trade. Other bridges are still closed, and part of Ottawa, the Canadian capital, is still occupied.

The diffidence of Canadian authorities in the face of these disruptions has been startling to American eyes. Also startling, although not actually surprising, has been the embrace of economic vandalism and intimidation by much of the U.S. right especially by people who ranted against demonstrations in favor of racial justice. What were getting here is an object lesson in what some people really mean when they talk about law and order.

Lets talk about what has been happening in Canada and why I call it vandalism.

The Freedom Convoy has been marketed as a backlash by truckers angry about Covid-19 vaccination mandates. In reality, there dont seem to have been many truckers among the protesters at the bridge (about 90 percent of Canadian truckers are vaccinated). Last week a Bloomberg reporter saw only three semis among the vehicles blocking the Ambassador Bridge, which were mainly pickup trucks and private cars; photos taken Saturday also show very few commercial trucks.

The Teamsters union, which represents many truckers on both sides of the border, has denounced the blockade.

So this isnt a grass-roots trucker uprising. Its more like a slow-motion Jan. 6, a disruption caused by a relatively small number of activists, many of them right-wing extremists. At their peak, the demonstrations in Ottawa reportedly involved only around 8,000 people, while numbers at other locations have been much smaller.

Despite their lack of numbers, however, the protesters have been inflicting a remarkable amount of economic damage. The U.S. and Canadian economies are very closely integrated. In particular, North American manufacturing, especially but not only in the auto industry, relies on a constant flow of parts between factories on both sides of the border. As a result, the disruption of that flow has hobbled industry, forcing production cuts and even factory shutdowns.

The closure of the Ambassador Bridge also imposed large indirect costs, as trucks were diverted to roundabout routes and forced to wait in long lines at alternative bridges.

Any attempt to put a number on the economic costs of the blockade is tricky and speculative. However, its not hard to come up with numbers like $300 million or more per day; combine that with the disruption of Ottawa, and the trucker protests may already have inflicted a couple of billion dollars in economic damage.

Thats an interesting number, because its roughly comparable to insurance industry estimates of total losses associated with the Black Lives Matter protests that followed the killing of George Floyd protests that seem to have involved more than 15 million people.

This comparison will no doubt surprise those who get their news from right-wing media, which portrayed B.L.M. as an orgy of arson and looting. I still receive mail from people who believe that much of New York City was reduced to smoking rubble. In fact, the demonstrations were remarkably nonviolent; vandalism happened in a few cases, but it was relatively rare, and the damage was small considering the huge size of the protests.

By contrast, causing economic damage was and is what the Canadian protests are all about because blocking essential flows of goods, threatening peoples livelihoods, is every bit as destructive as smashing a store window. And unlike, say, a strike aimed at a particular company, this damage fell indiscriminately on anyone who had the misfortune to rely on unobstructed trade.

And to what end? The B.L.M. demonstrations were a reaction to police killings of innocent people; whats going on in Canada is, on its face, about rejecting public health measures intended to save lives. Of course, even that is mainly an excuse: What its really about is an attempt to exploit pandemic weariness to boost the usual culture-war agenda.

As you might expect, the U.S. right is loving it. People who portrayed peaceful protests against police killings as an existential threat are delighted by the spectacle of right-wing activists breaking the law and destroying wealth. Fox News has devoted many hours to fawning coverage of the blockades and occupations. Senator Rand Paul, who called B.L.M. activists a crazed mob, called for Canada-style protests to clog up cities in the United States, specifically saying that he hoped to see truckers disrupt the Super Bowl (they didnt).

I assume that the reopening of the Ambassador Bridge is the beginning of a broader crackdown on destructive protests. But I hope we wont forget this moment and in particular that we remember it the next time a politician or media figure talks about law and order.

Recent events have confirmed what many suspected: The right is perfectly fine, indeed enthusiastic, about illegal actions and disorder as long as they serve right-wing ends.

Read the original:
Opinion | When Freedom Means the Right to Destroy - The New York Times

FOR IMMEDIATERELEASE:January 3, 2022Contact:Press@paul.senate.gov, 202-224-4343

WASHINGTON, D.C. Today, U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) announced that he will no longer be posting videos to YouTube unless it is to criticize the platform or announce that viewers can see his content on Rumble.com, where they dont censor the news.Today I begin my exodus from Big Tech, starting with the worst censor of all, YouTube,said Dr. Paul.As a libertarian leaning Senator, I think private companies have the right to ban me if they want to, however, those of us who believe that truth comes from disputation and that the marketplace of ideas is a prerequisite for innovation should shun the close-minded censors and take our ideas elsewhere, which is exactly what Im doing.Over the last year, YouTube has continued to wage its dangerous, anti-progress of science war against free speech, choosing to act in lockstep with government and ban videos posted by Dr. Paul that dared to contradict the governments position. These videos included conversations with journalists where he discussed the efficacy of masks, particularly cloth masks, and avideoexplaining the science behind why cloth masks dont work.For journalists and Kentuckians who want to continue receiving updates on Dr. Pauls work in the Senate, you will be able to find fresh, new video content on his Rumble pageHERE.

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Read the original here:
Dr. Rand Paul Announces He Is Quitting YouTube | Senator ...

Kentucky senator takes on Big Tech censorship, announces he is leaving YouTube.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., called YouTube the "worst" in Big Tech on "Kudlow" Tuesday, explaining why he decided to officially leave the social media platform.

RAND PAUL: "Mark Twain always said everybody was complaining about the weather, but nobody was doing anything about it. Everybody's always complaining about Big Tech. I decided to do something about it and I said, 'Who's the worst? Who's the worst in Big Tech?' And it's got to be YouTube."

"I mean, they took down a speech that I gave on the Senate floor, for goodness sakes. I mean, how crazy is that? They are so smug, so arrogant and so smart that they think that my speech on the Senate floor is something they disapprove of so much. They're not going to allow anybody to see it. So I don't want any part of that small-minded, closed-minded kind of, you know, very, I think, immature kind of thought process. I want to be associated with people who want to have debate, who want to be part of big ideas, who understand that ideas are how we get to innovation. So I don't want to be associated with these small-minded people."

Kentucky senator takes on Big Tech censorship, calling YouTube the 'worst' in Big Tech.

Read the rest here:
Sen. Rand Paul explains why he is leaving YouTube | Fox ...

Hey, Rand Paul is up for re-election and has to get headlines somehow. However, spewing conspiracy theories on OANN seems low, even for him.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis used monoclonal antibodies as his "trump" card against Covid infections. He could denounce Covid vaccine mandates because there was the "cure."

Then omicron came. Omicron is resistant to that treatment, and the FDA and the drug companies themselves made it clear they should not be used to treat omicron.

As usual, Republicans like Rand Paul turn this into a conspiracy theory that the FDA is killing Republicans and Florida because apparently, the FDA doesn't like them?

On OANN, Senator Paul said, "People who think we're a bunch of rubes in flyover country, have utter disdain for us. These are the people who actually limit our access to treatment for Covid," Paul said.

Paul continued, "They are, right now, as we speak, limiting monoclonal antibodies being sent to Florida. Too many deplorables, too many Republicans, too many conservatives are getting sick, and so their way to punish us is by not sending treatments, and I think it's abominable."

This is out and out lunacy.

Steve Benen rightly points out, "

The FDA announced this week that the monoclonal antibody treatments from Regeneron and Eli Lilly should no longer be used. The drugs had received emergency-use authorizations, but because they don't work against the omicron variant, and omicron accounts for 99.9 percent of all Covid infections in the United States, federal health regulators decided revoking the authorization was the obvious move. Both drugmakers endorsed the policy change, agreeing that the infusion treatments aren't effective against omicron, so their continued use no longer makes sense.

You will also notice that Republicans like Sen. Paul almost always spread the most despicable conspiracies and misinformation on right-wing outlets like OANN and Newsmax only. But they understand in time, these connivances will slowly percolate up through the underbelly of Rumble, and other Republican fever swamps, until it becomes certified by Fox News.

Digby also figured out DeSantis' scheme gone wrong.

"After all, DeSantis clearly thought he figured out a cunning way to avoid pushing the vaccines and angering the GOPs rabid anti-vax base while still pretending to offer some solution to the raging pandemic. His entire COVID response has been based upon the idea that the monoclonal antibody treatments are the answer. The fact that vaccines offer the best protection against serious disease in the first place was never of interest to DeSantis. Neither was the fact that monoclonal antibody treatments cost around $2,100. Vaccines, meanwhile, cost about $20-$40. For supposed fiscally conservative Republicans, thats quite a waste of government money.

See the article here:
Rand Paul Claims FDA Punishing Republicans By Refusing ...