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Feb. 24, 2020 - Ron Paul Liberty Report
18:59
Chaos Abounds! Coronavirus; Assange; Financial Markets; Sanders Under Attack

Will the "bipartisan consensus" in Washington blame the coronavirus for the coming economic downturn? Why does the US media seem so uninterested in Julian Assange's extradition hearing today? Today's Liberty Report is all about the chaos exploding all around us... Get your tickets to the Ron Paul Institute's May 23rd Houston Conference on the War on Speech! RonPaulInstitute.org/conference

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Julian Assange Hearing: Freedom of Speech? 00:06:47
Hello, everybody, and thank you for tuning in to the Liberty Report.
Today, we're doing the report just by audio due to a shortage of personnel in our studio, but we'll certainly be back in full bloom by tomorrow in the studio.
But anyway, there's lots to talk about today, and we have our usual co-host with us, Daniel McAdams.
Daniel, are you there?
Yes, I am, Dr. Paul.
Good morning.
Good morning.
No, we certainly have a lot of things to talk about.
They're all pretty important.
You know, Daniel, what I'd like to do is start off with something that of all the items that we think are important, one that doesn't seem to be getting the attention it deserves.
And that has to do with the ruthless treatment of Julian Assange.
We've talked about him for a long time, did the TST, the report for the week on Assange.
But our president, you know, has not been consistent on this issue.
But there's a major event going on.
He's been in prison for a long time, but then he was taken out of prison by the British police.
And now they're going to have a hearing, which is, it may be going on as we speak.
And they're going to be talking about how are they going to get Assange back to the United States.
Back to the United States.
It's to the United States.
He's not even an American citizen.
But they want to come back and put him in prison for 175 years for breaking American law.
I'm sure, Daniel, you've been thinking a bit about this.
Yeah, and the extradition hearing opens today.
So there are theoretically, as we speak, the hearing has started.
You know, the U.S. has appealed to the U.K. government, which, as we know, is very independent to send us back over here.
And the craziest thing is they want to try him, as you know, Dr. Paul, under the U.S. Espionage Act.
This will be the first time that they've used the Espionage Act against a publisher, a journalist.
You know, they want to call him a spy because he publishes things that were embarrassing to the U.S. government.
So really, this affects all of us, and all Americans should be concerned.
But as you point out, that's kind of a ho-hum in the media.
Right.
And, you know, Daniel, if we had to rate these several things that we want to talk about today, and they are in the news and they are significant, you know, and we're starting off with this.
And I think that's partially because at least I'm of the opinion that this might be the most important event that we're talking about.
I know we're going to talk about coronaviruses and the financial markets and things like that.
But this treatment is something else.
And of course, in doing this, we have to deal with the fact that at one time the president was on our side and we encouraged him tremendously because he was pointing out what they were doing during the campaign.
But since that time, he's changed his tune.
And if it had just changed to being more neutral, it might not have been quite so bad.
But he could get rid of this in a minute.
No, he's made a statement that this is none of his concern.
Well, maybe that would be a reasonable position.
It's no concern, shouldn't be a major concern for the United States interfering on the freedom of speech for somebody from Australia.
So that to me is a shame that they don't think of that as a solution.
And you really captured it in your column this week because on the one hand, they say, well, he committed treason against the United States.
And as you say, he's not even an American.
He's Australian.
So how can he betray his country?
But then he says, so yeah, you're subject to American laws when it comes to being a traitor, but you're not subject to American laws when it comes to freedom of the press.
You know, all of a sudden that doesn't count because you're not an American.
And Dr. Paul, that wasn't the intent of the framers when they made the amendments, was it?
No.
And I think this qualifies as being quite arbitrary on enforcement of law.
It's just horrible.
But right now, I think there's a greater sentiment building.
A few people got out on the streets in London, you know, in sympathy for Assange.
So the information, hopefully, public pressure is still worthwhile in spite of the fact that it's the deep state that runs everything.
Public pressure is very important.
So we'll be watching that pretty darn closely today, see what happens and see how what the reaction is.
I can't imagine them making the final determination today because it's called a hearing, but you can't ever tell.
You can't base your judgment on just logic because we'd lose out too often on that.
And they say that if he does get extradited, he will be put in a prison cell that's about 100 times worse than the one he's in right now.
It'll be total isolation, which is, you know, psychological torture.
You know, never see the sunlight, total isolation.
You know, it's just horrible.
And they say that our official position is that we don't torture prisoners.
And, you know, it was, and people would say, no, we don't torture, you know, people.
We only torture jihadists, you know, the people who are terrorists.
So he's been put into that category.
And what are they going to get out of him?
You know, that to me is so tragic.
But you already alluded to it.
Basic principles of what the country was founded on and the emphasis on freedom of speech, making it the freedom of speech to be the ability to speak out against one's government.
And in this case, it's just a foreign journalist pointing out some shortcomings that were, they're never being charged that he's lying, that he's giving false information.
That isn't the point.
And you mentioned it in your state opening statement, they're just afraid of hearing the truth, which is tragic.
But once again, don't you think this fits the category of too much bipartisanship in Washington?
It looks like the deep state might unify the two parties at times.
Yeah, too much bipartisanship.
And meanwhile, Chelsea Manning just spent another birthday behind bars because he refuses to testify against Julian Assange.
Talk about a miscarriage of justice.
Boy, that's for sure.
You know, another item that's high in the news every single day, which we've talked about, and I've spoken out with the position cautiously advising people go slowly.
And remember the adage about first do no harm.
Coronavirus Concerns 00:03:31
And yet I am not quite as, I guess, concerned about the coronavirus.
Right now, the way I understand it, there are 13 cases in the United States and no deaths.
And the other thing that concerns me about this whole thing, because it's having an effect on the markets right now, my concern is the comparison.
You know, we've had 10,000 Americans die from the flu in this flu season.
And there's 650,000 cases of flu.
And there are already tens of thousands of people that, you know, are catching this thing.
And yet, I find one thing, Daniel, that I think is so ironic because, and we've commented on this, is, ah, boy, this flu is dangerous.
It's going to mess up the economy.
What's the Fed going to do about it?
A little common sense must work.
But Bullard, the president of the Fed at in Fed is at St. Louis Fed, he had a quote.
He was asked this, and the quote shows how ridiculous the Fed is.
So when they ask him about the Federal Reserve, what can they do about the coronavirus?
He says, well, you know, you get a cold and maybe drink more orange juice than you would otherwise.
Does that cure the cold?
Probably not, but it treats some of the symptoms.
So I think it might help a little bit.
Can you think of anything more silly?
At least he's not saying that they can cure, but they actually believe that they are the backstop for any controls getting, you know, any financial markets getting out of control.
And of course, today, things are moving.
You know, it's even enough to move gold significantly, but even the stock markets are down shortly, and they are the protector of the financial markets after the last resort.
And you know, they're busy right now.
But I think the odds of the Fed fall in these problems because I think in one case, we're overreacting, another place we're underreacting, and they never suggest what we should be doing.
Like when it comes to sons, are they thinking about protecting the First Amendment or are they thinking about the monetary policy design in our Constitution that you shouldn't have a central bank and only gold and silver should be a legal tender?
That is totally irrelevant.
It's just who's going to manage things?
And yet all we hear now is what we need.
The backup will be print money and of course spend more money.
And they expect that will take care of it and soon we will find out.
But right now, I think there's a tremendous overreaction in the markets from the virus.
But it's underestimated because I think the reaction in the market should be due to what the Fed has already done for the past 10, 20, 30 years, designing the biggest bubble ever in the history of maybe the world, especially, or at least in the United States.
It reminds me of that famous old saying, never let a good crisis go to waste.
10,000 People Died From the Flu 00:03:28
But you know, when you said you wanted to talk about the coronavirus, and I know you'd mentioned this, so I went over to the CDC website, the Centers for Disease Control, and they had a new document they just put out.
They put out an estimate for the 2019-2020 flu season.
And these statistics are alarming.
As you pointed out, worldwide, only 2.4,000 people have died from corona worldwide.
Here's what the CDC says about the American flu season, October 1st, 2019 to February 15th, 2020.
29 to 41 million flu illnesses, 13 to 19 million flu medical visits, 280 to 500,000 hospitalizations, 16,000 to 41,000 deaths.
This is from the regular old American flu.
And as you say, the headlines are dominated with the coronavirus.
And I know you want to be cautious because we never know, but when you look at the old American flu, it kind of pales by comparison.
They don't remember about that rule, first do no harm.
It also reminds me of my first week in Congress in 1976 when we had to deal with the swine flu.
And this was a political stunt because Ford was president and having a difficult time getting reelected after Watergate.
But there was a big scare.
It was politicized.
And so there was a rapid vote brought to the floor, a bill, $135 million to inoculate everybody in the United States.
And so they did.
It passed.
And the irony of all this was that there were two doctors in the Congress at that time, myself and Larry McDonald, who was a Democrat.
And we were the only two that voted against that, you know.
And our concerns, of course, there were several reasons.
This is not the way to practice medicine, obviously.
And sometimes people get sick from shots.
And it turned out a lot more people died.
You know, I don't think anybody died from the flu.
And they had like 500 cases of Gillen Barar syndrome and deaths from that.
So that was much more deadly.
They inoculated 45 million people.
And after about six months, they were gotten totally gounced because it wasn't working.
So what they did, they finally canceled the program.
So, you know, and you've already mentioned the caution that we have to say this with, because everything is risky and you don't want to let your guard down.
But what if it is good health that prevents it?
I've read that children don't even essentially don't get the coronaviruses.
And the people who are out in the sunshine and getting the right nutrition are less likely to get it.
And when it boils down to it, it'll probably be that the people who died, and this could be true with flu.
But I think the biggest discrepancy in all this is, you know, 10,000 people die from the flu.
And we're getting, you know, really, really excited about 13 cases in the U.S. without any deaths.
So I would ask people just to stop and think about it.
Rusians Helping Sanders? 00:05:08
The markets are going to come on glue.
But just think, Daniel, one suspicion I have, and others I think have expressed this, is that this may turn out to be very, very convenient.
Blame all the correction.
Blame the bursting of the bubble on the virus, not on policy and spending and the movement towards socialism.
No, they're not going to do that, but the virus might be a convenient whipping boy.
And the administration can always use the Federal Reserve.
But not many people are going to be talking about the monetary policy and the fiscal policies of this country.
And speaking of being in a panic, our last topic we were going to talk about is the Democratic Party in a panic about the rise of Bernie Sanders.
It's pretty incredible, isn't it, Dr. Paul?
Boy, boy, I'll tell you, this is something.
There was one article I read this morning.
It was unbelievable how panicked the Democrats are.
And I felt so sorry for them.
But I think they're, you know, they don't like unconventional politicians.
Trump is, you know, a little unconventional, even though he goes along with them a lot.
He's unconventional and he doesn't deserve the popularity.
So therefore, anybody who voted for him is an idiot.
And they hate them.
And then it spins over to directing all their hate toward the president.
And this is what they do right now.
The Democrats are doing to Sanders.
But Sanders has some real wild policy.
I know some people are concerned that this is a sign of the movement of the country that we are going to become socialists and we are going to be much more involved.
And this is a bad time.
I'm not totally convinced of that because it's such a failed system, but it's going to be a challenge to counteract the deep state and the media and all that we have to contend with.
But that is going to be a real challenge.
So they have to destroy Sanders.
But I don't think this should be a job.
Why don't they just tell the truth about him?
The idiocy of trillions and trillions of dollars.
And his answers to his question.
Well, I'm not sure exactly how much it'll be, but it'll cost a lot.
We have this modern monetary theory, which is just an exaggeration of the old monetary theory.
Everybody gets free stuff.
And that we know is going to end.
But when will the people wake up and say, hey, it's all a fraud?
This is all fake.
We talk about fake news.
What about fake politicians?
And I wonder if the silver lining of a Sanders rise might be that the conservatives start rethinking the idea of fiscal conservatism.
If I would remember that.
But you know, you mentioned the deep state, and this is the last thing that I'll mention if you don't mind.
It's interesting the deep state reaction against Trump and Sanders being the two strongest candidates, because over the past week, we've seen two reports from unnamed intelligence officials that the Russians are helping Sanders and they're helping Trump.
And it seems to me like the deep state is really trying to get its hat in the race.
It's pretty interesting.
You know, when I watch this on TV, these same individuals over and over again in the last three years have gone on all the stations.
And they're back at it again after three years of proving that it was all based on lies, all that Russian gate business.
And they come up with the same stuff, no proof of anything.
And these announcers on TV, you know, MSNBC and CNN and others, they see it, they say it with a straight face.
They say they have no shame.
They're either really, really able to bury their any desire at all to tell the truth, or they don't know any better.
But they have no shame.
And they say that as if they had just discovered the most magnificent thing in the world.
The Russians are coming.
The Russians are coming.
And we know what that means.
So anyway, I find it pretty interesting, all that's going on.
I often think that I like to keep up with it and try to make the best assessment I can.
But it's too bad it's so serious because, you know, a runaway bursting of a financial bubble and overreaction to coronaviruses and then wars that don't need to be fought and then the civil liberties being undermined by bipartisan deep state.
That's too serious to say this is a fun game.
So, Daniel, I'm hoping that we can keep this battle going and we will do our very best to expose the truths.
Thanks, Dr. Paul.
Thank you, Daniel.
And I want to thank the audience today for tuning in to the Liberty Report.
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