US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made good on her threat to be the first US House Speaker to visit Taiwan in a quarter of a century. The Chinese government is furious and threatening retaliation. Are there any benefits to the US of Pelosi's provoking China?
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Mises Institute Impressions
00:04:52
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| Hello, everybody, and thank you for tuning in to the Liberty Report. | |
| With us today is Daniel McAdams, our co-host. | |
| He's back with us. | |
| Daniel, good to see you. | |
| Good to be back, Dr. Paul. | |
| Well, very good. | |
| And you had an exciting trip, I understand. | |
| You went over to the Mises Institute. | |
| I remember about the Mises Institute because I frequently mentioned it. | |
| Yeah, yeah. | |
| And but you did something over there you hadn't done before, right? | |
| I mean, you were the teacher part of the teaching program, and your daughter was one of the students. | |
| Yeah. | |
| She did okay with it. | |
| Yeah, it was great. | |
| I mean, I wasn't teaching. | |
| I gave a little side talk on foreign policy. | |
| The others were professors, you know, they gave great talks, but it was my first time at Mises Institute. | |
| It's a beautiful, beautiful campus. | |
| It's a beautiful building, great people. | |
| In fact, I brought a couple of pictures back, Dr. Paul, that you might like. | |
| If we could put that first one, here is all of the Ron Paul staffers collected in the room. | |
| I know them. | |
| You know those guys. | |
| There's Lou Rockwell and Jeff Deist and Joe Becker and myself gathered in the main conservatory room. | |
| And there's just one more, if you can, because you can't go on a trip without photos, right? | |
| Here's Lou and Jeff having a QA with all the students. | |
| And it was just a great time. | |
| It was tremendous. | |
| And I'm so appreciative for them allowing me and my daughter to go there and enjoy it. | |
| I've not been to one of these type of seminars at all. | |
| I know about it, but I'm always interested in how the young people are reacting. | |
| Did they interreact a lot? | |
| Do they ask questions? | |
| Are there discussions? | |
| And did you see? | |
| I'd like to know what your impression was. | |
| Were these people all well-versed in all the details of libertarianism and Austrian economics? | |
| Or were there some people there to come and checking things out? | |
| One of the things that struck me that I found interesting is that in my mind, I was thinking that all of the students at Mises U would be hardcore economics majors with a view on being an economics professor. | |
| And that is the case with a big group of them. | |
| But a lot of the young people that were there are not at all that. | |
| The first fellow I spoke to is a petroleum engineer student. | |
| And so they view this as something that adds to their appreciation and understanding of the world, regardless if they're specifically going in that field. | |
| So I was struck by the intelligence of the young people there. | |
| A lot of them watch the show. | |
| Of course, they all love you. | |
| But just it was nice to hear. | |
| I guess I'm getting a little old and cynical, but the young people, they have a lot of ideas and a lot of energy, and it was just really nice seeing that. | |
| Well, that's great. | |
| And that's always encouraging to meet with these young people because they do seem to have an open mind and they like the discussion. | |
| So that's great. | |
| And I think so much of an institute like the Mises Institute. | |
| I think about what you do with Ron Paul Institute, you know, for peace and prosperity. | |
| You've introduced a lot of people by foreign policy, and we desperately need that. | |
| So you have to keep up all the good work you do there. | |
| You know, we've changed our format a little bit today. | |
| Special day today, special day. | |
| Tell us what we're doing now. | |
| You know, I'm not an expert on all these details. | |
| All I can do is ask questions and spout off a little bit now and then. | |
| Well, it's let's get ready to rumble, Dr. Paul. | |
| We are now live on Rumble. | |
| We've made the switch. | |
| It's kind of a beta test because there are some things we're going to work out, but we're happy to be there. | |
| We're happy that hopefully a lot of our live YouTube audience is moving over and going to do a live chat on Rumble and have a nice time. | |
| So we'll see what happens. | |
| We're happy to be here. | |
| Well, the name of the game for us is reaching people who are very interested in ideas. | |
| And some people say, well, you're not going to be successful until you reach 50,000 every 10 minutes. | |
| Numbers are important, and we look at the numbers, but we also are considering quality, too, because long term, it's the quality of leaders that make the difference. | |
| And I think so many of the people that know about the Mises Institute and go there, they are influenced. | |
| And you say they are economic majors. | |
| Well, that's just as well. | |
| Yeah. | |
| Because I've always said that the little bit of former education I had in economics in college said, even in things in high school, I said, once I discovered there was another method, I kept saying, I had to spend a lot of time unlearning the things that we have. | |
| So I guess the Mises Institute is trying to prevent young people from getting too much in their head that they unlearn. | |
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Point of No Return
00:15:38
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| So, no, I'm glad you went there and we will stay in touch with them. | |
| And Lou's participated in so many of our stuff. | |
| Yeah, both Louis. | |
| We've got some trouble in the East, right? | |
| Trouble is there. | |
| Spelled with a capital T. Or capital P, Pelosi. | |
| Well, I tell you, there's been a lot of news, but the news is still coming out. | |
| And some of those people who had to have risk investment, well, the Chinese are going to do this. | |
| We've got to do this. | |
| And it's logical. | |
| There's nothing wrong with them trying to do it because politicians, you know, cause chaos. | |
| But it looks like she made it into Taipei and into Taiwan. | |
| And so far, the best we've heard is there hasn't been a military confrontation, which would have been ridiculous. | |
| But I'll tell you what, we were closer to it of military confrontation. | |
| But I'm not, like some of the people who sort of work for the military-industrial complex, are looking forward to it. | |
| And I think that one thing that we try to do is, you know, try to be as objective as possible. | |
| If somebody's out there doing bad things and provoking other countries and looking at how they can start a war and trying to rope us into it, that's one thing. | |
| But to say that it's always somebody else that's doing it, and I feel a greater personal responsibility, especially having been in Congress and when I was in Congress, that I had a responsibility, you know, to try to get the information out. | |
| And that's why, of course, in the early part of this century, when you joined our office, we were trying to inform people about the Middle East and the uselessness of these wars. | |
| And when we see this, but here we are, we're still doing the same thing. | |
| When you think about the efforts of Syria, we've talked about Syria so much, and then Ukraine, you know, and the majority of Americans still have no idea what 2014 coup means, you know, that kind of thing. | |
| So that is certainly our goal because I think this stirring up this trouble is just useless. | |
| So she's over there, she, being Pelosi, over there and just sort of provoking. | |
| I see, they just look like they're provoking. | |
| For what reason? | |
| What if the same thing of these flying planes close to borders and ships and all this sort of thing? | |
| What if all this activity would be in the Gulf of Mexico, you know, just at the very limits of Houston, Texas? | |
| We wouldn't be very happy with that. | |
| All of a sudden, it would only be those invaders. | |
| But it's hard for people who think in terms of believing in their country and want to do the right thing. | |
| It's very easy to not want to blame your own country. | |
| But it isn't so much who's for us to find out who to blame. | |
| It's try to find the truth and reveal it and try to stop these confrontations because this determination by the people who are probably the people speaking for the military-industrial complex, China's an enemy, Russia's an enemy, Iran's an enemy, and it hasn't always been that way. | |
| And so much of that stuff has been our side doing as much provoking as the other side or more. | |
| Well, Taiwan is 7,600 miles away from the U.S., right? | |
| So it's a vital national interest. | |
| Nancy Pelosi is the highest ranking U.S. government official to visit Taiwan in 25 years. | |
| The last was Newt Gingrich, that great, well, I won't say. | |
| So, you know, she's landed there. | |
| The Chinese have said all the way up to, we may shoot a plane out of the sky. | |
| Now they've just announced when she landed that they're going to conduct live-fire military drills in the area plus targeted military actions, quote unquote. | |
| So Biden apparently wasn't too keen on this even, even Biden. | |
| The U.S. military Pentagon wasn't super keen on it. | |
| So I think the question is, what's the point? | |
| You know, she went there, she poked the Chinese in their eye. | |
| What's the point? | |
| Now, here's what she would say. | |
| Let's put up the next. | |
| This is her tweet when she got on the ground. | |
| She said, our delegation's visit to Taiwan honors America's unwavering commitment to supporting Taiwan's vibrant democracy. | |
| Our discussions with Taiwan leadership reaffirm our support for our partner and promote our shared interests, et cetera, et cetera. | |
| Our democracy against autocracy. | |
| I heard one pundit trying to explain what this is all about. | |
| And I think that individual was wrong in this assessment. | |
| But just thinking of the possibility, we better watch out. | |
| He says, this is her opening salvo for running for president. | |
| Oh, my gosh. | |
| And the shape that some of the political system is in. | |
| I don't think the country or the Democratic Party should be ready for her. | |
| But that, of course, is the astounding surprise to me is how the Democratic Party was willing to do so many dumb things. | |
| And it was detrimental, not only to America, you know, when you think about the energy problems and the things there, detrimental to the Democratic Party. | |
| But right now, they're still plugging away because it was all Trump's fault. | |
| Trump caused all the trouble that there is. | |
| But there's a little good news about the trip. | |
| Dr. Paul, let's put up that next picture. | |
| Very happy to report that when Pelosi arrived, she was wearing her mask. | |
| So she's only had probably 28 shots, but she had her mask on. | |
| So that's good, setting a good example. | |
| But Dr. Paul, this is the side that you won't really hear very much reported on the U.S. Put up that next clip because not everyone in Taiwan is happy about this. | |
| And here was a protest that said, get out, troublemaker Nancy Pelosi, American witch, get out of Taiwan and China. | |
| So the opinion is not unanimous in Taiwan that they want the U.S. to save their democracy from China, just like the opinion was not unanimous in all the other countries we saved. | |
| So it's a little bit more nuanced. | |
| And were those signs in Taiwan? | |
| That's in Taipei, yeah. | |
| No, that means so far it doesn't look like they've been canceled. | |
| Yeah, not yet. | |
| You know, it seems like they have as much civil liberties as we have here. | |
| Oh, maybe more. | |
| Yeah. | |
| So we'll see what happens. | |
| But again, I think the main theme, if we were to draw a line under it, is what is the point? | |
| What is the point of provoking China? | |
| What do we get out of it? | |
| And I put an article from our good friend Ten Carpenter up today on Mount Paulinstuit.org. | |
| He makes the point that we are pursuing the same policy toward Taiwan and China as we did toward Russia and Ukraine. | |
| And we kept pushing and pushing, saying, oh, they're bluffing, they're bluffing, they're bluffing. | |
| Well, not everyone bluffs all the time. | |
| So the point is that it gets to a point where they aren't bluffing and they do something like we saw on February 24th. | |
| And so you say, well, we showed them, but what's the point? | |
| What's the point? | |
| And then if somebody in this country, an investigator, suspects there might be some activities coordinating some of American politics with the Chinese politicians. | |
| Are you allowed to talk about that? | |
| Is that brought out? | |
| Oh, yeah. | |
| Our Department of Justice will take care of that. | |
| You know how that happens. | |
| Well, let's move on to another. | |
| I would say this is more of a propaganda ploy. | |
| But I think the administration, big trouble, economy not doing well. | |
| So they need some good news. | |
| So let's put up that next clip. | |
| Zawahiri, remember him? | |
| 72 years old, long in retirement. | |
| He was killed by the CIA. | |
| Zawahiri's killing unlikely to Al-Qaeda weakened Al-Qaeda significantly. | |
| Well, that's because he hasn't been active in 21 years, but it led for a good headline, we killed a bad guy. | |
| You know, this is the whole thing. | |
| And what happens if you take a position, especially if you're still in Congress or something, is to turn it around and you're so unpatriotic, you hate America. | |
| You know, they use that type of rhetoric. | |
| But it is something that I am just really annoyed about is the CIA. | |
| I don't want a CIA. | |
| The CIA shouldn't be there. | |
| I do believe that Truman was telling the truth when within months after it was established, he says, I never realized, I guess it was right after Kennedy's assassination. | |
| I never realized how much the CIA is not just gathering information to help enhance our security. | |
| It wasn't this group that's supposed to go out and murder people. | |
| So it's to me, it's a secret government and it never gets audited. | |
| We don't know exactly where they are or what they do. | |
| And you know, it's to the point where even a president isn't secure from the CIA. | |
| And of course, the CIA not only has been involved in coups around the world, I think they've been involved in coups in this country as well. | |
| Yeah. | |
| You know, our good friend Larry Johnson, former CIA, but he echoed what you said to me before the show. | |
| You are wondering, I wonder how many kids they killed, you know, in this. | |
| And here's what he wrote today. | |
| He said, what are the odds if the CIA dropped another bomb on a wedding party or on a load of kids? | |
| So why now? | |
| Biden is desperate for some good news. | |
| Pelosi stands on the brink of starting a real shooting war with China, and Russia continues to ravage Ukraine. | |
| Oh, almost forgot. | |
| There is this thing that was once called economic recession that no longer exists because Biden and his sycophants think they are Jedi masters and can easily convince us that they are not the drones we are looking for. | |
| And you know, he's probably a bad guy, just like Bin Laden. | |
| But there's still not the, that shouldn't be enough to allow. | |
| Anything goes anytime. | |
| But if you have an empire and you have the most number of weapons, if we spend more money than the top other nine countries than they have, and then describe something that we have to protect ourselves. | |
| You know, it's on our national security interest. | |
| So the whole concept, not of the CIA, but the concept of empire, and then you put that together with the monetary mischief that goes on, this thing is out of control, and that's why it's going to end, because it's not feasible. | |
| You just can't continue to do this. | |
| And there will be a point where the people will start to reject it. | |
| This whole thing about, what, 60,000 military people, you know, recognize that taking one of these vaccine shots was dangerous to their health. | |
| So they kick them out. | |
| And then they go out and try to start off a war. | |
| I mean, the only thing that comes to mind when it's so far removed and so stupid is that, could it be possible that somebody in our government would actually think their philosophy can benefit by chaos in the streets? | |
| And I've come to the conclusion, probably so. | |
| Chaos in the streets is really a victory for them. | |
| It's an outrage for everybody else. | |
| I just hope more people find, see chaos in the streets, whether you have the cities burning and people breaking windows and robbing and beating up people and the police not doing anything. | |
| And then the police, then you fire all the police. | |
| And if the people don't wake up, if the Republicans can't deal with this, of course, I don't have all that much overconfidence about the Republicans doing much on the long run, but at least changing positions. | |
| Somebody told me one time, they said, I never see any difference between the two, but I always vote against the incumbent. | |
| And this would be a good time to change it. | |
| But government is so big and so secret. | |
| How can the person who has perfect instincts and understanding be able to grab hold of this thing? | |
| It's so big. | |
| And how do you, can you call your CIAH and say, I want to talk to you guys. | |
| These are the new rules. | |
| You might not even get home that night if you do that. | |
| Well, people will say, well, so what are you going to do about it? | |
| You recognize a problem. | |
| All you ever do is complain. | |
| What are you going to do about it? | |
| Well, as you always say, we do what we can. | |
| And one of the things we can do, I think, is bring people together. | |
| And that's what we're going to be doing actually just next month, a month from tomorrow. | |
| Put up that last clip. | |
| We're going to be in Washington, D.C. Anatomy of a Police State. | |
| Great speakers. | |
| We've got Colonel Doug McGregor. | |
| We've got Jeff Deist. | |
| I will announce now, because I was speaking with him over the weekend, our good friend John Whitehead is going to be there, John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute. | |
| I think one of the greatest champions of civil liberties in the country. | |
| He's actually going to be a speaker now. | |
| So announcing a new speaker. | |
| Get your tickets. | |
| Go to RonPaulInstitute.org. | |
| There's a big link up there on the top. | |
| Just click it and get your tickets. | |
| And we will see you in a month. | |
| Dr. Paul. | |
| Yes, very good. | |
| And I think your point is well made because, you know, some of these problems that we see around the world can be resolved if the two sides would just come together. | |
| Because I think that the tool of persuasion and set an example is so important and can work in the assumption that the big enemy, the people who run these other countries, as in our country, they don't always represent the people. | |
| But they represent a faction. | |
| And the one thing right now that's going on, whether it's what Pelosi is doing or what's happening in Ukraine, is you can't look weak. | |
| And I'll tell you what, as bad as the Democrats have been, when it comes to this foreign policy and aggravation and provoking, I hear more ugly rhetoric coming from so-called ultra-conservatives, you know, the very conservatives, but they're doing it for national security, and they are the only ones that know what real patriotism is all about. | |
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Can't Look Weak
00:01:56
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| And if you don't support this, then that means you don't care about America. | |
| So that has to be reversed. | |
| And the only way I think it will finally wake up people is what happened in the 60s. | |
| I mean, it took so much slaughter before the American people said, we're sick and tired of this, and come home. | |
| And we did. | |
| That some people were from the opposition, really worried about, they thought America will never be willing to go to war again. | |
| Well, we had a Republican president that said, we ought to cancel that thought out. | |
| We need to show that we will go. | |
| We still have the empire and we still have the reserve currency of the world. | |
| So therefore, you better watch out. | |
| But it can't pursue forever. | |
| There's just no way it can. | |
| What will replace it is really the question we should be dealing with. | |
| And I know what we believe in in this program on what we would do to try to improve things. | |
| And that is, you know, trying to reject the whole notion of aggression and war and threats and intimidations and not talking, that doesn't work. | |
| So it's not like the answers aren't there. | |
| You know, they talk a lot about inflation. | |
| The answers are available. | |
| Everybody knows it. | |
| Even the people who are printing all the money, they know it. | |
| But in the meantime, that's the only thing left for us to do. | |
| That's the system. | |
| So they continue to do it. | |
| But it'll end. | |
| The big thing, though, is what is it going to do? | |
| Is the chaos going to get worse? | |
| Are the people who like chaos then going to really cash in and be the dictators? | |
| And I'm not going to be supporting that. | |
| I want that, yes. | |
| Okay. | |
| And I do want to thank everybody for tuning in today to the Liberty Report. | |