Freedom of Speech was included as the First Amendment for a reason. It's that important! Without the ability to speak freely and protest against the government, liberty is lost. Unfortunately, as with so many things when government power expands too far, freedom of speech becomes politicized. "Free speech for me, but not for thee." Both Left & Right will embrace censorship and cracking down on peaceful protests, if they believe it will help them "win." But once freedom of speech is sacrificed, the only "winner" is government power. Both the Left & the Right lose their liberties.
Economic Challenges: Gold, Debt, and Profits00:06:17
Hello, everybody, and thank you for tuning in to the Liberty Report.
With us today, Chris Rossini, our co-host.
Chris, welcome to the program.
It's great to be with you, Dr. Paul.
Very good.
We have exciting things to do today.
We're going to solve all the problems of the world, except for a couple of them.
But to start off with, we're going to solve one of the subjects will be to describe and deal with this subject of how do we protect ourselves with the First Amendment?
It seems like constant abuse is occurring.
Before I get into that, I do want to make a couple comments about how the economy is doing.
And the economy is doing badly.
There was a suggestion today that it looks like we're going into stagflation.
And my answer is we've been there to a large degree.
You know, the economy is weak and prices are going up.
And yet the Fed is rushing around.
One thing requires higher interest rates, the other one requires lower interest rates.
So they do both at once.
They're magicians, except for the fact that the conditions get worse and not better.
They have no control of what's happening.
But just recently, we've had some statistics to show that the conventional way of measuring what they call inflation, but I call it price inflation, but the real inflation is done by spending too much money and then endlessly printing the money, devaluing the dollar.
And that's what's been happening.
So this is why the people are very unhappy.
And there's so many different statistics.
The one that just came out today, I believe, was the PCA, PCE, and that's personal consumption expenditures.
And it was higher than they thought.
And this was bad news for at least a little while.
And there are other CPI, PPI, and all the different statistics saying which one is best.
Well, the markets always respond before it happens, when it happens, and after it happens, they're always searching for the truth of the economic truth of things.
But when the government gets involved in everything, you know, those different measurements, the different charts that they look at to find out if we really have inflation.
You know, I have a suggestion for people who would like to keep up with that.
Just if you don't do your own shopping, do it.
Do it for a while.
Just go to the store and buy stuff and take the amount of money you think you need, what you needed maybe a year or so ago and see what you can buy with it today.
And that's the best way.
This is where people get upset.
But then the people here, prices are up, prices are up.
Oh, it must be the profits, profits that are too high.
We have to cut the profits down.
We're going to tax the businessman.
Oh, no, it's labor.
We have to make sure that labor isn't struggling.
So the labor, they're fussing because they don't have enough money.
So what is their request?
Give us more money.
Anyway, they're on the wrong track.
More and more people that we come in touch with are realizing what really is going on here and has a lot to do with what is in the news and people talk about it, but they don't realize how damn how damaging it is.
And that is debt.
Debt, what is it, $33 trillion of debt and growing?
So it's a shame of what is really going on.
But this is the reason I partner with Birch Gold Group because they know how hard it is to inflate and preserve your wealth under these conditions.
And it's a traditional effort because the precious metals have been used not for 100 years, not since the United States was created.
It's been there for maybe thousands of years.
They knew what the preservation of wealth and exchanging goods and services with a sound measurement, which is sound currency.
That's been around for thousands of years.
But there's an effort by just about everybody that would like to get a free ride.
They would like to ignore all that.
So they get hold of government and then they promise a lot and deliver a little.
And then it eventually ends up with the problems that we have today.
So I think it's very important for us to understand this.
This is why I do work with Birch Gold.
And what they offer is some advice and some information.
And if you text Birch, you go text Ron 989898 and you will get hold of Birch Gold and they will send you material.
There's no charge for the material.
And they explain how you can get out of ordinary stocks and get into a function where you can hold the metals, you know, the actual gold and silver.
So that to me is important.
So once again, if you're interested in more information, we can all use the information that helps sort things out.
And that is, you text Ron 989898 to get this material.
And it's worth your while to do that.
And people say, oh, no, look, the gold is way up.
It just crashed a little bit last week.
Now is it too late?
No, it isn't.
It's there.
They're continuing to do the same thing over and over again.
If you think you better be a little cautious and take time on maybe getting involved in the precious metals, you could say, well, I've come to the conclusion we have absolute proof that the members of Congress are going to balance the budget next year and start shrinking the debt.
Right of Free Speech00:13:21
So if you believe that, you can, I guess, do what you want, but that's just not true.
The big thing is, is try to prepare.
And that's why I have done that personally over the years to try to protect the wealth.
And it's available to us.
So once again, to close out this little segment, is if you want to get some material from BirchGo, text Ron 989898, and they will send you some of this material.
So, Chris, we have a couple other things we want to talk about today.
But one thing we wanted to concentrate on is the right of free speech.
You know, we have all these trials going on and all these innuendos, and people have a very poor understanding of what free speech is.
And for this reason, we want to just go over in generalities how important it is.
And I've argued the case that if we don't have the protection of the First Amendment, we cannot continue with what we're doing at the Iran Paul Liberty Report because we want to use the right to speak out, search for the truth, talk to other people, and influence people into moving in a direction of personal liberty.
And if we're not careful, we'll lose that.
We did to a large degree lost our right to speak out during the COVID lockdown.
And that still exists to some degree.
But everybody seems to want to have some control of speech.
And I think it's a bipartisan thing.
Once again, watch out for that bipartisan stuff.
Because what they want to do is anybody in politics, not anyone, there's a few up there that they know the difference.
And that is they want to control things.
And that's why they go into politics.
And they would want to quiet.
and silence the people that are on to something big and that is the truth of things.
And that, of course, is a motive of ours is to seek the truth of things and try to help as many people other in that direction.
Chris?
That's right.
Very good, Dr. Paul.
Yeah, the First Amendment is paramount.
Our founders were very wise with those first two amendments, especially.
But the freedom to speak, especially to criticize the government.
Government is force.
They use violent force.
You better have that right to criticize them.
Otherwise, everybody's in trouble.
So that's why that was the First Amendment.
And unfortunately, as time goes on and government gets so powerful, there are many factions on the left and the right.
And they both at times attack free speech, you know, because they think they're going to get an advantage.
They think they could just pick and choose free speech for me, but not for my opponents.
And if I get a cheap win, then I'll take the cheap win.
You know, and we went through this with COVID.
You know, you were considered anti-science if you were speaking out against what the government wanted.
We experience it with every single war.
You're pro-Putin, you're pro-Hamas, you're a jihadi, you're pro-Saddam, pro-Assad.
You know, government does not want to be criticized, and especially the faction that is in control at the moment.
They don't want you to speak your mind or even worse, something that's true.
So all of these labels, it's so juvenile.
You have these grown men and women acting so juvenile, calling people pro-Putin, if you don't want your government to get into a nuclear war.
But that's the way it is.
People, they use their emotions instead of their brains.
But the thing is, everybody loses and only the government gains because your team always changes with time.
You know, there were people that were pro-vax and they didn't care that everybody that was against taking a COVID vaccine was censored.
But those very same people could be protesting U.S. government support of Israel and now they're being cracked down.
So your teams always change.
So if you give an inch to allow censorship and allow people to get beaten up at peaceful protests, then eventually it's going to be used against you.
And left and right both will equally lose and only the government will win.
Very good.
You know, the truth is that every member of Congress takes an oath of office to obey the Constitution.
And of course, the First Amendment is one of the most vital, if not the most vital, you know, amendment or message in the Constitution because it's so clearly written.
This is this to be is very annoying that you have people in the in the Congress and they all take the same oath of office.
But when you think about it, whether it's the First Amendment or all the amendments of the whole Constitution, how often do they disobey it?
You know, I honestly tried to just estimate the stuff that went through Congress while I was there.
And it was like, I thought 90% or more actually technically was unconstitutional, but they never talk about that.
They say, oh, you, They rationalize that by saying, Oh, we have a different opinion about the Constitution.
We think it has to be a living document.
We shouldn't be overly rigid and believe every word it says.
So then they could do anything they want.
So they reject the notion of truth.
They don't like it.
And in generalities, they are against truth because that's why they want to silence us.
And that's why they want to take away the First Amendment, because that's why it's so vital to it.
But I'm going to read, I'm going to read the First Amendment because it's such a wonderful amendment.
The first thing they wrote to improve the document, the founders realized, was not a perfect document.
And even the first phrase is pretty darn good on the First Amendment.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, prohibiting the free exercise thereof, abridging the freedom of speech or the press or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Everybody's heard that many, many times.
Boy, that's beautiful.
And just don't go to Congress because you will be taught.
Don't bug people about following it because that annoys them.
Because they have given up, I think, the basic principle that truth is what we seek.
And this is what this amendment does: it's trying to establish the ground rules for seeking the truth and allowing it to be sought after in a peaceful manner.
Because it has been well known throughout all of history that there will be disagreements.
It's how we solve these.
And unfortunately, more so in the current era, is all these disagreements are being settled more by violence.
And that's what has to reverse if we ever want to get a handle of runaway government.
Chris?
Very good, Dr. Paul.
Yes, people need to be aware, Americans, that the government, who does not want to be criticized and their factions who do not want to be criticized, they always look for inroads on how to attack free speech, how to attack the Second Amendment.
They just look for just a little opening for them to get it through, and then you'll lose it all.
You know, when it comes to free speech, they have this made-up thing called hate speech.
Just give them that inch, and everything will be hate speech that they don't like.
Same thing with the Second Amendment, common sense gun laws.
Come on, you can't be against common sense gun laws, can you?
But you give them that inch, and then you'll see the Second Amendment deteriorate right in front of your eyes.
And this is nothing new.
This is how government always works.
The income tax is over 100 years old.
Did you know that the income tax was only supposed to be for the rich?
Only the top of the top of the top were supposed to pay the income tax.
Look who pays income tax now.
We're paying half of our income to the government in the land of the free.
But that's how it works.
You just give them an inch.
The Iraq war was supposed to last just weeks, five months at most, not 20 years, not Afghanistan 20 years, but they just, that's how they get their opening.
And of course, the one that should be still fresh in everyone's mind: 15 days to stop the spread.
Just give them those 15 days, and everything will be fine.
That is how power works.
That is how it erodes liberty.
It doesn't try to take it all at once.
It just wants a little concession from you.
And then if you open that door, they will take it all.
You know, a lot of people get confused about, and they'll be sincere trying to sort it out and how best to enforce the First Amendment and understand it.
But what I've done over the years is I go to the importance of owning ownership of property because the Constitution guarantees that.
Private property ownership's been known for as long as there's been recorded history.
People believe they own certain things.
And I think the First Amendment depends on this too.
It should control the whole thing, whether it's in the schools or the churches or whatever.
But if you have private property, the people, when there's an argument, what can I do?
Can I say this?
Can I, you know, how far can I go with it?
The question that should be asked is, who owns the property?
It's your home.
So everybody says, it's my house.
You don't even have a right to come in here, at least up until now.
And then the government comes in along.
You can't do this.
They will say, well, if you can't come into my house and you can't, and I can say anything I want in my house.
And if somebody's invited in as a guest, that's fine.
But I think that's the way it should be.
That's the way it is.
We generally look at that at our churches and synagogues.
If you go in there voluntarily, but you can't go in there and preach and take over and say, I have a right to, you know, to answer these questions because I don't agree with all what you're saying.
Well, that would be nonsense.
So property is so important, but we have diminished the importance of property because right now, I claim we don't own our property.
Even our homes aren't owned.
We just pay rent.
If it's our own home, we pay rent.
If we don't pay those taxes, we're out of there in no time.
So the private property really doesn't exist.
And this to me is so important.
So if it's your home, if it's your church or if it's your synagogue, schools, why shouldn't the schools have the same thing?
So the schools are open field for just arguing and fighting and screaming and demonstrating because everybody owns them and nobody owns them.
And sometimes these arbitrary controls means it isn't even dominated by the people who pay all the taxes.
Sometimes the people who pay all the taxes don't have any more access than others.
And just look at what they've done to the schools recently, you know, with the immigration.
They'll put people out of a school and turn them into dormitories for illegal immigrants.
You know, so it makes no sense.
But you say, well, that's just going a little bit too far.
How would you ever have the schools own, you know, be privately owned?
Well, we've had quite a few schools start that drifted away and got involved with the government, but there's still several, you know, decent schools, good schools that are privately owned.
And they should not have to follow.
They should be able to have free reign on what they say and do and all their opinions on how the world should run.
And yet that isn't the case.
It's because we have given up, you know, this whole concept of ownership.
So depending on where it is and what it is, I think private property would go a long way to solving these problems.
But unfortunately, that has been diminished and private property is looked at as being something very evil.
And the whole principle of socialism and fascism and extreme welfarism, it's not your property.
It belongs to government.
And they'll tell you, see, I think we still have a form of slavery.
The one thing is, is the mandate on the books now is that the government can conscript people.
The law says they can conscript young people, probably women and men now, as soon as things get tough and they need soldiers.
So I would say that is slavery.
If you have to sign up and say, you have a right to my life and take me and send me 6,000 miles away and fight these wars.
Government Ownership of Earnings00:05:30
And then the other thing is, is the income tax.
What they do is they come in and say, well, all right, you make $10,000 and that's your income.
No, it's not your income.
It's the government's income because a bunch of it's raked off the top.
But the whole thing, the percent you're allowed to keep is determined by the government.
They might allow you to keep 5%, 100%.
No, never 100%.
So it starts with the government owns what we earn and keep.
They own our property as long as we're obedient to the authoritarianism of the politicians that saturates Washington.
Fantastic, Dr. Paul.
I'll finish up with my closing thoughts.
Yeah, without access to the truth, without the ability to speak the truth, to hear the truth, to see it, we really can't live very long.
I mean, what if you didn't know, you know, don't stand in front of a speeding car?
That's the truth, right?
What if you didn't know that?
What if that information was blocked off from you?
You wouldn't live very long.
Same thing with touching a hot stove, jumping in fire.
If these truths, there's endless examples.
You know, we know a lot of truths in our lives and we survive because we understand them and apply them to our lives.
But if those were blocked off, we would die, you know, and lies are a part of life.
You can't protect yourself in a little bubble where only the truth is going to reach you.
Lots of lies are going to reach you, mostly maybe, you know, but there's, and there's no way to stop it because every single person on this earth, including myself, has the ability to lie at any second.
So there is no protection, especially from the state of all people, you know, when they, when censorship is used, it's to shield and protect lies.
It's to protect all the lies, you know, and make sure that they spread, that the truth doesn't get out so that they could become rich, get more powerful, whatever their motivation is.
They all have different motivations and they see it as a tool.
Censorship is a tool to get rich, you know?
But the truth always prevails, whether there's censorship or not.
No tyranny ever lasts.
The truth always cracks through from some unexpected way.
It's just better if you don't go down the censorship road.
You'll get the truth a lot faster.
So that's what we advocate.
Very good.
You know, there's a few basic principles that can be easily remembered helps because I still refer to a bigger principle in order to guide me through something on what the solution ought to be.
And, you know, one person that gave us a hint on what to look at when it comes to legislation, how to run society and where it should go and who should be in charge.
And that was Lysander Spooner.
And we have to be aware of the fact that he is very strict libertarian.
He didn't believe in all this rules and regulations, but he had some very specific rules.
And that is that nobody, that there was a big difference between violence and killing and also just the difference between that the tolerant tolerance, you know, that if you have a principle of tolerance, you have to have that before this would work.
You have to have voluntarism, you have to have tolerance of others, and you have to agree that you can't initiate the aggression.
There should be no aggression.
And this to me is very important.
And the one thing that would happen is that people could come in and regulate hiring and firing and promotions and every single thing you do.
Because to do that, you have to reject the whole notion that people are different.
Some people are naturally inclined to work harder.
And that's very true.
And the other thing is that people should have equal rights, but they're not equal.
Everybody has different talents.
You know, there were certain things in life that I wished I could have done it, but I just didn't have the qualities for that.
So it's really not that difficult to figure out.
But I think the principle of voluntarism is a basic principle that would help us solve all these problems.
Because the one reason why this should be easy to sell is the results are so wonderful.
I mean, the freer a society, the more peace there is and the more wealth there is.
And yet we end up always, always being pushed around by the politicians who promise all kinds of things, create problems and create poor people so that they can come along and solve all these problems.
So I think that is one thing that we have to be aware of.
And that is why we have to start with some basic principles.
And one is that we do have a right to our life and our liberties.
And we should have the right to pursue our happiness the way we see it, as long as we don't participate in the violence that we see too much of.
I want to thank everybody for tuning in today to the Liberty Report.