Recent developments in eastern Ukraine are increasingly pointing to the direction of a more direct conflict between Ukrainian and Russian forces. The two breakaway eastern regions have evacuated civilians amid OSCE reports of massively increasing mortar and other military attacks over the line of demarcation. Most, according to OSCE maps, are coming from the Kiev side into the breakaway region. Russia will, according to press reports, decide today whether to recognize the breakaway regions as independent. Fasten your seatbelts.
Hello, everybody, and thank you for tuning in to the Liberty Report.
With us today is Daniel McAdams, our co-host, and we are using Zoom today because it's a holiday, but not for us.
There are still problems out there that Daniel and I will be talking about.
Daniel, welcome to the program.
Happy President's Day, Dr. Paul.
I know that's one of your favorite days of the year.
You know, the trouble is the presidents, I don't think, were so hot.
They're always the best ever.
We learned that in grade school and high school in the history books that the bigger the war and the more fighting and killing and the more authoritarian the presidents have been.
It seems like the historians, the pseudo-historians, place them in a very high position.
But that's another subject because there's something wrong with the system that invites all this miscellaneous stuff.
A lot of times when people start being very detailed about what's wrong, they hardly ever talk about the infractions being a consequence.
The government's too big.
It's natural for the human being to do dumb things when they're invited to use the power.
You know, a perfect example of this would be with COVID, and they were not bashful.
Presidents weren't bashful.
The governors weren't bashful.
The mayors of cities weren't bashful.
So the problem, as I see it, I'm sure most of our viewers would agree.
The problem is this big government and then the natural designs for so many people to want to use this power and they enjoy doing this.
But today we want to talk more specifically about what's going on in Ukraine because it's ongoing.
You know, I keep looking at the markets and trying to coordinate things.
And believe me, markets are up and the markets are down.
You know, they're moving all over the place.
So you can't rely on that because things move.
All we have to do is have one statement from a president or some official someplace, and it can really change things and attitudes about what the people are thinking, what investors are thinking, what the politicians are thinking.
But right now, we're in a mess.
Now, Daniel, what I noticed here in the last couple of days has been this tremendous bearing down on the big war is just around the bend.
And Putin has been doing his share of scandalizing this and trying to scare people because the big one's coming.
It's tomorrow.
Oh, it didn't come.
Made a mistake.
Tomorrow is coming.
So on again, there are all these predictions, but they never stop.
It's sort of propagandizing.
And Daniel, you and I, of course, worked hard in the early part of this century when there was an effort to remake the Middle East, have various wars that went on.
And that one particular war that we fought so hard to try to prevent in Afghanistan, that ended up going 20 years.
But there took a lot of propaganda.
And we remember the stories, the horror stories about what they were using to scare people into going into Iraq, even though Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11.
But the people responded.
The population in the United States first were totally against it, and then they sort of got talked into it.
But now they realize it was a stupid trick for us to go in there.
But we're in the midst of that right now.
There's been reported an identification of $22 million that our government spent just trying to stir up trouble and drive up the hatred toward Russia.
Now, we don't have to be a defender of Russia to be objective because we do have a responsibility.
I assume, having been a public official as well as a citizen, that we do have an obligation to try to improve our government.
So therefore, we can decide whether or not we think what is happening is proper.
But there certainly is a strong move in going into this big war.
And it's the biggest wars since World War II.
And there's been Michelle Shah shot back and forth, and there's things going on.
It's serious, and we've tried to warn people how serious it is.
But the whole thing is most Americans by now have probably bought into the fact that we got to stop the Russians, just like we had to stop the Iraqis, and because they caused 9-11.
So now it's Putin.
Well, they're Russians.
They're communists.
And I got to thinking, Daniel, about Marxism.
We've heard a lot in the last three years, even though the culture of Marxists have been around and they've been implanted throughout our society for many, many years, and they are causing and have caused a lot of trouble.
So I would say the Marxist ideology has actually made a lot of progress in the United States.
And I would have to admit very strongly in our lifetime and certainly since the 1990s that the Soviet style Marxism in Russia, it's gone down.
And although although Putin is a strong nationalist and doesn't want to be pushed around, he is not exactly a Kushov or Stalin or anybody like that.
So there's a transition now, but they have to paint.
They have to paint the Russians as bad guys in order to justify the militarization, continue with all the military-industrial complex and get ready.
And they say, oh, our kids aren't going to go over there.
A few other presidents told us that too.
So, but our money's going to go over there.
So anyway, Daniel, it's still a dangerous situation.
It is.
And there's a lot of news happening this morning.
We'll go over a few things.
But what's interesting, you talked about the continued predictions on the part of the U.S. about an imminent attack.
What was interesting is Friday, Joe Biden took to the pulpit to say that he is now absolutely convinced that Putin is about to invade Ukraine, including Kiev, and take over the country and have an overthrow.
Almost at the same time he was saying that the defense ministry of Ukraine said, we have no information.
We have no sense that an attack is imminent.
So you have the person right there.
He says, we have our own intelligence capabilities and we don't see an attack imminent.
So it's sort of Ukraine is now the playing field upon which the U.S.-Russia ongoing conflict will be played out.
And I think they're realizing that the blood's going to be on their soil.
But the main thing that's happened this morning is that, of course, afternoon Russia time is that the head of the Donetsk Republic has formally petitioned President Putin to recognize the two breakaways in the East, Lugansk and Donetsk, as independent states.
And that's a huge issue.
That's kind of the nuclear option in a way.
Well, semi, it's not an attack, but it would pave the way for it.
And I was just looking before we started, Dr. Paul, that apparently President Putin has said he will decide today whether he's going to recognize now that Duma, the Russian parliament has already passed a measure urging the president to do it, but Russia has a strong presidential system, so he can use their advice or not.
So apparently today, that's the big deal.
And I think what precipitated this is not that Putin woke up in the morning and said, hey, I got a good idea.
Let's recognize these breakaways.
But what we've seen, and we can talk about it later, and Moon of Alabama has a good piece over the weekend about it.
The OSCE monitors in the area where the breakaway, the demarcation line between breakaway and Ukraine, have noted a massive increase in shellings.
The OSC itself has provided a map of where these shellings are landing.
They're predominantly landing in the breakaway region.
So one might assume that they're coming from the Ukraine area.
So you're seeing a massive increase of shelling.
And I would encourage anyone to look at that article, Dr. Paul, because you can see from the OSCE's own report, you're seeing four or five, six times as much shelling over the past few days as is normal.
So it almost feels like things are coming to a head now because of the increased shelling on that line and the increased pressure.
As we know, over the weekend, there was an evacuation of women and children from the breakaway regions in advance of a possible war.
So it does seem, Dr. Paul, that things are coming to a head within the next maybe 12 hours or 24 hours.
Right.
You know, this Minsk agreement is very important.
And you think back, it was written in 2014 during the time of the coup that we participated in, and then it went into effect in 2015.
And actually, they have an outline there.
If our side, NATO side, the West, the people who oppose Putin, would have lived up to this, it sort of outlined what they can do in spite of that revolution, which was a coup that we participated in.
You know, this could have been a positive position to take.
But they're totally ignoring that.
And yet, I think that's what should be mentioned.
I don't think, you know, I try to watch everybody who puts out news, even the people who put out fake news, and there's way too much fake news and good news.
But anyway, they never mentioned the Minsk agreement that I see on regular television.
And it's just not mentioned.
And yet, really, at that time, there was a little bit of diplomacy that came out of that mess in 2014.
And yet they're not living up to it.
And I think, of course, Putin mentions it.
And I think people should pay more attention to that because right there, there's an agreement in this.
But as far as I can tell, Daniel, this is not a whole lot different.
It's a foreign policy that is bipartisan.
It's interventionistic.
It's based and regulated by the military-industrial complex and a system of monetary financing.
And inflation takes care of all paying the bills.
So it's more of the same, but it is something is very, very bipartisan.
You know, we hear, you know, the president, sometimes he's been accused of being a little bit confused and not knowing what he's doing.
But I tell you what, he's very, very precise on being, you know, going to be tough on Russia, which makes the conditions worse.
At the same time that he's getting real, real tough, the Republicans, many Republicans say he's too weak.
He's giving in.
He's made it so great for the Russians to restore their empire again.
So the problem is the philosophy of foreign policy, interventionism, and then they argue over what form of intervention they should have.
They don't start with the principle of non-intervention and constitutional government and looking at it from a moral viewpoint on where does the right come for people to go into other people's houses and tell them how to live?
Where do we get the right to go into any country we want, tell them what to do?
And if they don't do it, what do we do?
We boycott them and punish them.
Right now, the whole talk is we're going to really punish the Russians.
And, you know, I think Putin has downplayed this.
Who knows how much harm they can do?
But, you know, the Russians have become pretty independent.
They have oil.
They're selling oil.
Their income is better.
And they're low on debt.
So it's not exactly like people can write them off and say, oh, no, they don't have any relationship to freedom.
And then when you look at the influence of the Marxist interventionist cultural Marxism that we have, I would say that there's been tremendous advancement in this country.
But fortunately, Daniel, we've talked about, you know, the spotty areas around us already, they're sick and tired of the lockdowns.
The people are waking up.
So as bad as it may seem when we talk about this from day to day, I still think there's a fertile field out there for converting people into believing in a moral standard, the Constitution, and diplomacy rather than just threatening foreign countries to do what we want them to do.
And if not, we will either provide more harm and suffering economically, or we will threaten them with weaponry.
Well, the danger right now is that, you know, there's a perception in Washington always that we have to have an enemy.
And Washington, certainly the Biden administration right now feels like it needs a war.
At least that's, you know, judging from their actions.
You have inflation that was not transitory as they promised.
It's actually running away.
You have a botched escape from Afghanistan after 20 years.
You have increased perception that the Biden administration has mishandled COVID.
So you have a big problem this administration.
The president's numbers are abysmally low.
The only one lower is the vice president.
So it's a deeply unpopular administration.
There is a perception that war is a way to boost one's popularity, but war also contains within it the seeds of disaster.
So it's basically rolling the dice.
Warmongers Unveiled00:04:08
But you mentioned the Minsk Accords earlier.
And despite what you would hear on mainstream media, they have not been implemented from the Ukraine side.
What the Ukraine side was obligated to do was work toward more self-determination for these two breakaway regions, which both of them speak Russian in the 70 to 80 percent level.
They voted 90 percent for the Yanukovych government that the U.S. helped overthrow.
And when we overthrew the president they voted for, of course, they said, well, we don't want to be part of this country anymore because the guy we voted for has been kicked out by the Americans.
So there has been very, very little movement toward fulfilling the Minsk agreements, recognizing some autonomy, some self-determination in the East.
It really wouldn't have been any skin off of Kiev's nose.
Who knows, maybe they've been pushed in by the U.S. to not do it.
But we're at a point now where, as I say, it feels like it's coming to a head.
And in addition to the things that I've said, Dr. Paul, a couple of other important developments within the past 12 hours or so is that Russia claims that five saboteurs from Ukraine attempted to enter Russia and they engaged them.
I think they killed four of them and they have one hostage.
And so that person, if this is true, of course, Ukraine says it's fake news.
We don't know yet.
But if they have managed to keep one alive, we may hear a little bit about what their mission was.
I wouldn't want to be that guy.
And the other thing is that Russia claims that Ukraine has shelled a border post in Rostov, just over the border.
And so you see this kind of increasing claims by Russia that Ukraine is escalating.
We do see factual basis for that on the line of demarcation that the Ukrainian forces are escalating.
And again, I think it's moving toward a head.
You know, today also it appeared there is an article that came out in BBC, and we know that they have a bias on this issue.
They tend to do exactly what we direct them to do, and they've been doing that for a long time.
They've been friends of the United States doing some things that have not been appropriate.
For instance, back in 53, it was the British that really led the charge and we joined them, you know, in overthrowing the leader of Iran.
And we've been suffering from that ever since.
And that's still a place where the war hawks are just yelling and screaming that you better, if you quit worrying about the Ukrainians, you got to worry about the Iranians.
But Johnson, Boris Johnson had a statement that he says this is a definite positive, positive say he's making.
He's saying that Russia plans the biggest war in Europe since 1945.
Well, how does he know that?
And it's just stirring up more trouble.
And that's, I'm sorry.
But we shouldn't be surprised at this.
This is the way the propagandists move along.
And the other group that's really towing the line on this is the Washington Post.
Don't be surprised there.
They've been warmongers.
They, oh, no, weren't they for peace in the 1960s?
Not really, not really.
They have not been on the side of liberty for as long as I can remember.
Maybe somebody can find some things, but right now they're on the side of authoritarianism and they will do and participate in whatever we instruct them to because we have a little bit more money.
We have money in the bank because we print it and the suckers of the world are still taking it.
So yes, we can just buy our friendships and bribe the military industrial complex.
But I have one other thing, Daniel, I wanted to emphasize, dealing with the foreign policy, because we always have to show strength.
That's it.
Something Will Happen00:07:21
That's what the warmongers want.
The people here that are promoting all this activity, they want people to be aware of it.
And we have to be strong.
We have to be strong.
And so it's always been said, as long as I can remember, you have to have enough weaponry and troops to fight two wars at one time, East and West.
But now they're talking more about, well, we didn't have that much success in the Middle East.
We better increase our preparations, be prepared for the Middle East.
And we didn't do so well these past 25 years.
So I don't know whether spending more money there and sending more troops there will ever be of help.
But we also have been egging the Chinese on.
I mean, they're an enemy too, and we can't forget about them.
So we send our vessels over and we see how close we can get to the borders and antagonize.
And even though most of the time it's in international waters, it's just looking for trouble.
You know, it's so unnecessary.
And besides, accidents can happen.
Like this week, there was an accident.
There's been a plane that we've talked about.
A lot of people have talked about the total wasted money in the F-35.
I think it's like $100 million.
Well, they were over there showing off saying, look how strong we are.
And also sending a message to the Russians.
Look at the kind of weapon rehab.
You better be careful.
Well, they missed their landing.
They fell off the end of the aircraft carrier.
Fortunately, nobody was killed.
But what the heck?
It was just 100 million.
Does the military complex complain about that?
No, we get to build another plane.
So we'll just print up the money.
But that system is coming to an end.
The foreign policy is deeply flawed.
The monetary policy is deeply flawed.
Financial problems are deeply flawed.
And that is why people are upset.
They're not really upset that the Russians are coming, the Russians are coming.
No, the cultural Marxism, Marxists are already here.
And that's what we ought to be dealing with.
Well, you know, Dr. Paul, in the foreign policy world and in the Beltway in general, failure means that you get a promotion.
And so the whole idea, we had a 20-year failed war against the Afghans, so that we essentially lost.
So what's the, well, then let's fight the Russians and Chinese at the same time.
So that's the mentality.
But I wanted to bring up one last point.
And this is also from the Moon of Alabama article, because you mentioned the Washington Post.
And sometimes, you know, it's kind of like when you read Pravda in the Soviet system, you had to read between the lines.
Occasionally, they'll tell you a truth.
But the Washington Post over the weekend quoted, didn't quote by name, but some European officials at the Munich Security Conference complaining that the Biden administration presented them with no evidence for the claims.
Remember, Biden said, I am certain that Putin is about to attack Kiev.
And they were complaining.
And here are some quotes.
One European official told the Washington Post in Munich, quote, we have no clear evidence ourselves that Putin has made up his mind and we have not seen anything that would suggest otherwise.
And another one says, at this stage, we do not have such clear intelligence.
And the complaint is that the U.S. never shares with them the actual intelligence.
It's sort of like that briefing we saw with the State Department's spokesperson who was challenged by Matt Lee from AP.
The State Department spokesman said, we know that Putin is about to make a film and that film is going to be used as a causes bell eye for war.
And Matt Lee said, well, what's your evidence?
And the State Department guy said, well, I'm telling you, it's because we know it's going to happen.
And Matt Lee said, well, that's not good enough.
The European officials are now because they'll find themselves, of course, in ground zero.
They're also saying, look, you guys' word for it, it's not good enough, especially considering these past few weeks.
Or as you started the show, Dr. Paul saying, it's going to be Tuesday.
It's got to be Monday.
It's going to be at three o'clock over and over and over.
And even Blinken, when he briefed the Security Council at the end of last week, said, well, you may not believe us this time because we've been wrong every other time, but trust us.
We know for sure the Europeans are using the old Reagan phrase, trust, but verify, and they're not able to verify it right now.
You know, maybe something will happen.
Some good will come from this, but you have to look around, look carefully.
Because some people might say, you know what, they're talking about fake news.
They're telling us stuff as if it's news and yet it's not verifiable.
So it's fake news.
But you know what?
I haven't seen anything in the liberal media condemning all this fake news out here.
They're probably still blaming Trump for this or something.
But no, if somebody from the conservative non-intervention side said something like this, you're a terrorist.
You want to, you know, they did that to those who took a different and a moral position on COVID.
You're killing the kids.
You're punishing the kids.
And now we find out that the whole treatment for the kids was very detrimental.
So yes, this whole idea that we're supposed to trust the media, unfortunately, that's not much available to, but you can find the truth.
Seek out the truth.
They're out there.
Sometimes they're on the internet and sometimes you talk to them and sometimes they're giving speeches.
But I tell you what, it's out there.
And I think there's a great desire to hear the truth, the plain truth of things.
And that's what gets me excited.
Daniel, do you have another closing statement?
Final statement.
If I were a predicting person and I'm not, I predict that it will be like 2008 when Russia went into South Ossetia because the Georgians kept shelling and killing Russian citizens and then Russian OSC monitors.
If it does happen, and I think it may well, it'll be a brief, a quick battle.
And the result will be the detachment, at least if not de facto.
I mean, if not the jury de facto of that eastern part of Ukraine from Ukraine, it'll be a dumb move on Ukraine's part.
But right now at this point, it seems like the whole system is locked and loaded.
So I think something will happen.
The idea that Russia will invade Kiev, I think is preposterous, but they will probably solve this problem that they perceive in eastern Ukraine.
So that's my last statement, Dr. Paul.
Very good.
You know, and the likelihood of a big, big war breaking out there, it exists, but I think it's low on the horizon that it's going to happen.
And people will, you know, continue to try to figure out what to do about it.
But I think on the long run, it's not going to be World War III where the tanks are going to cover Europe.
Pays for Wars00:00:57
I don't think we should dismiss anything because there's a lot of crazy people out there in charge of weaponry.
But for the most part, I think people are going to realize that it's not worthwhile.
And the big thing is, who pays for these wars?
Well, you know who pays for the wars?
Basically, it's the young people.
They're the ones who have to fight the wars.
And they, you know, are sent to the wars and they suffer the consequences.
And even the young people who don't go to the wars, because they print up the money, they suffer from all the inflation.
So the people need to wake up.
Just a lot of common sense on economic policy would stir the interest of a lot of people saying, enough is enough.
Why don't we live within our means and promote the cause of liberty?
That's a much better program as far as I'm concerned.
I want to thank everybody for tuning in today to the Liberty Report.