 I might say that it's an honor that we're cosponsoring this this conference today with the Ron Paul Institute This is the first time in the entire history of the Mises Institute as David Stockman asked me that and I just said It's if you've ever done this before I said no and David said well with the two with these two organizations together He said I knew I had to be there. So All these speakers, of course, they're just tremendous The speech that I had originally planned Became very quickly out of date. So I think I'm just going to take questions and answers today. I might Just talk for a moment about how far back when we Some of these problems go When we hear the word national security national interests Used by people in Washington. I always think it's important to substitute imperial for national then it all makes sense So was it in the national interest of the United States to to bomb Syria? No, I do it. It wasn't was it in the imperial interest of the American Empire to do so. Yes very much so because every little Jot and tittle on the map of the world Might threaten the Empire since the US feels as the Romans did before them and and others of course besides the Romans That really the US is destined to rule the world In the US's cases, I guess rule the solar system too and with the colonies on Mars and the moon and so forth So they they Everything is of interest to them. Everything is important And just as the state even a dictatorial state By the way, the American president counts as a dictator if we were to judge you by the standards of the founding fathers We call it all these other guys dictators To the founders one of the key things about a tyrant was that he was able to declare war on his own So of course we've had that for some time in this country So the the Romans Were famous for their slogan Divide a at Emperor Divide and conquer We and put it in a more modern context bring about chaos and control so On an empire whether it was the Roman Empire or the American Empire or all the other empires Benefits from causing trouble it prevents people from coalescing against it keeps everybody off Off their off their feed Everybody wondering what the heck is going to happen next if they're in some part of the world where they might be attacked Being constantly subverted by the CIA and the other all the other intelligence agencies which feel You know when we hear about the Russians faking news and so forth to control our elections The CIA and the other intelligence agencies always intervene in other people's elections always We know about all the covert agencies There's even an overt agency the national entailment for democracy whose open job is to interfere in other countries elections to bring about Democracy well, what is democracy the democratic result is when the pro-american side wins The side that is therefore there's going to be subservient to the US Empire. That's democracy So we have an open organization. I never heard that mentioned just strangely enough during all the I'll the talk about the poor Russians So the Romans Schumpeter points this out in one of his articles on on ancient Rome that they Had to the in the official propaganda. There were two Themes we are the most important we bring civilization we bring culture we bring law We are the greatest people ever to exist. We're destined in fact by the gods to rule forever That's where Rome was called the eternal city turned out not to be eternal, but that's what they felt That's what they propagandized as on the other hand. There was a constant Drumbeat of oh my gosh, the Germans are going to get us the Gauls are going to get us the whomevers are going to get us Keep the people constantly in fear of being attacked while the Romans are of course. We're attacking everybody else Garrett Garrett the great old right journalist In the years before World War two Referred to America's having this complex of fear and vaunting that is we're the best We're the most powerful. We're the richest. We're the greatest. We're the freest USA number one, you know and the finger and all that Meanwhile, oh my gosh, they're going to get us the Germans are going to get us the Japanese are going to get us the Russians are Going to get us whatever there's always some enemy the terrorists are going to get us so it's important that it's you know, it's exactly the same stories as the Romans and Part of this It's always interested me as to who they're demonizing when a country is being demonized when a foreign leader is being demonized And are these guys dictators? Are they dictators by the founding father standards? Oh, yeah Is the American president again a dictator by the founding father standards? Oh, yes And in fact, he's the world dictator not just a dictator of one regime. So I think it's always important to look at The people who are being demonized remember when Saddam Hussein was being demonized and by the way This was a very bad man. He actually at US behest. By the way, I should mention he was installed by the US in power The US and the British as the anti-communist dictator of Iraq Because they were concerned about having a question Iraq that would be friendly to British then and US interests But he did something very very evil he started a war against Iran in which a million people were killed on both sides and He received chemical weapons from the US. He received intelligence. He received vast amounts of money Weapons That was a horrible thing. He did On the other hand, he's an interesting character. I remember Just before the the second Iraq war when Michael Moore actually did something good I know that's a little bit difficult to believe He put out a movie called a Fahrenheit 9-11 and I remember it being bitterly criticized at the time Because he showed regular scenes of Iraq He showed businesses. He showed mothers taking their children to the playground. He showed the Very popular national symphony orchestra in Baghdad men and women nobody no women wearing burkas or or scarves by the way if they wanted to they could they didn't have to playing classical music Showed companies showed businesses, you know notice how much How many pictures have you seen of Damascus? We're never shown pictures or anything that humanized it humanizes any country. The US has got in the crosshairs So Saddam Hussein I don't know. I was thought it was interesting that when when the attack when he knew he was going to be attacked he opened all the the Collections of weapons of the government and handed them out to anybody who wanted them And I thought well, that's an unusual thing for a dictator to do He was pro-christian Something else that Assad is guilty He protected the Christians He was from a minority tribe, which is typically how these countries work when you've got huge splits between tribes of Sunnis and she is and The tribes not entirely there are many tribes when they're both these groups. It's a very complex picture So he was an always in a balancing act But part of the balancing act and I don't think it was out of the goodness of his heart, although it Who knows? He was pro-christian he prevented the Christians from being from being a Being ethically cleansed and killed as it happened ever since the US intervened in Iraq Maybe just by coincidence. Maybe not by coincidence so I Was thought it was interesting. I couldn't watch the whole thing, but there was famously a tape made of so I must say in seclusion and as he's walking to the to the Gallows where he's going to be where he's going to be hanged He was very calm dignified and I thought I Thought of the time I wonder if George Bush in a similar circumstance would be calm and dignified as he's about to be executed So it's just an it's just a just an interesting point. It doesn't seem to go along with What were what we're told about? Assad But we thought it was interesting that Assad did not want to be in politics He he was educated in England in Ophthalmology, it was a practicing ophthalmologist in London I've left Syria and it was only the death of his older brother in a car accident and His father is pleading that brought him back and I think he must often wish the heck he were still an ophthalmologist in London Because of course, he's being threatened with being Qaddafi eyes and he has a beautiful family They would all be killed as well, but he's a very interesting figure. Do you ever see him? Are there every one time there were a few interviews with him? Why aren't there interviews with him? Why isn't he allowed to speak his piece? Never why aren't there pictures of what life is like in the areas of Syria that have not been destroyed by by the US or by its How shall I say cohorts ISIS and al Qaeda? Very very suspicious relationship between the US and ISIS and al Qaeda Mujahideen as as was pointed out earlier were in effect al Qaeda Finance by the US brought together by the US to fight the Russians in Afghanistan This is about where some have been lot and first came to prominence and his role in that fight So empires are happy maybe all governments being Not being a pro-government guy myself. Maybe all governments are happy to employ these kinds of evil forces To bring about the chaos that then enables them to go say hey, we're bringing civilization We're the we're the ones and You can trust us Turns out of course you can't trust the US We can't trust the US government ever we can't trust the US government domestically because it aims to Destroy every institution that stands against it whether it's the family the community the business the charity the church Government is against them all That ought to give us a clue about what's going on in the rest of the world You just can't trust them. You can't believe them and it's always important not to believe them I always love the old british expression never believe anything until it's been officially denied Maybe sometimes government officials and politicians tell the truth. I exempt of course ron paul Who was the the great tooth filler? So These are very interesting times What trump did is unfortunately obviously not what he promised in his in his election Was it entirely a fraud? Uh, one of my favorite bloggers bionic mosquito said did he wake up with a horse's head in his bed? You know what what exactly happened? He also said He he was turned By the deep state even faster than reagan and he said this time they didn't have to use a bullet So, uh Reagan became very compliant. I don't think uh Reagan actually had some interesting ideas about the gold standard and about the things that just immediately disappeared After he was shot Trump has been conquered again or was he was it always You know, who knows we'll see maybe there's still some good that to be had there He's already done some a few good regulatory things, but Uh, most of it of course has been bad, but all the u.s presidents wouldn't one was the last time we had a half decent u.s president Herbert hoover was a great man of peace Posed world war two for example Tried to bring about peace during his administration, but a total disaster is as president domestically He was really responsible for the start of the new deal roosevelt just continued Uh, his work Hoover's work, which was based on woodrow wilson's work setting up really the first fascist economy in american history then uh Made perpetual by franklin roosevelt during his administration so um He's we can't we can't trust these people so um Let me just end there and and uh, see if they're if any of the bouncing balls want to uh Ask a question here yes We all know the un has never met a foreign invasion. They didn't approve of but uh, the european union hasn't really Fully jumped on board with it yet. How do you think their role will play out? as this continues Well, the european union was very interesting organization as we now know um Set up at least at the behest of or certainly with the cooperation and the urging of the cia Maybe it was more than that on the other hand us opposition Has kept them from having their own army and their own military otherwise, which I think is Benefit but on the other hand you have nato vastly expanded nato Not there Mr. Trump when he talks about hey, they owe us more money than than Uh, we're spending too much money defending them. Obviously the u.s. Is not defending anybody in europe. The u.s. Is occupying europe The u.s. Got atomic bombs all over germany When when uh, if your next door neighbor has got an atomic bomb in your backyard And he asked you for something You may be inclined to do it um So the u. I must say I despise the u. I hate the u. I hope it goes out of existence um But I think I think there are you know, there are some pro peace people in europe Not the evil angle of merkel or or yunker or the rest of the people at the at the uh sort of the In the belly of the beast the direct belly of the beast um but The europeans have been hurt by the u.s. Anti russian sanctions Dramatically hurt businesses in germany and france all over europe Which used to do a tremendous amount of very profitable business with the russians Have been have been hurt in there as a result. There's pressure to against that On the other hand, they must be afraid themselves of being bombed if were they to remove the sanctions And this of course was uh put on during the obama administration and quite terrible Sanctions as ron paul reminds us are only of course not a violation of free Not only a violation of free trade, but there are acts of war and under international law. It's an act of war I mean those of us old enough to remember the boycott the oil boycott Uh in the 70s people were very angry They were angry at the countries that were doing that because it had a bad effect here Now the real reason it had a bad effect here was the u.s. Government, which uh Set up the rationing scheme That ended up with i was living in oklahoma city at that time Ended up with oklahoma city being awash in gasoline. I'm not complaining about that In other parts of the country, you know having none Of course, there was a crazy quilt and a horrible system, but everybody was angry at those arabs Who would cause this well at the worst thing if the arabs had Simply asking more money for their oil It would have raised the price here But it would not have led to a shortage anytime. There's a shortage of anything means the government is involved As mario rothbite used to say there's no shortage of rembrans If you want to buy a rembran, you can buy a rembran. You got to have the market price obviously so But sanctions make people very angry rightly angry they seek to impoverish people they're immoral It's an attack on civilians If we think of the the most rigorous of the just war Criterion that war was supposed to be what mesis said supposed to be a war of the soldiers It was not supposed to involve civilians now, of course In all wars civilians are the vast majority of the the dead and wounded vast majority In a lot of these countries it's far safer to be a soldier than to be a civilian Is this by happenstance? No, I don't think it is. I think it's I think it's deliberate Hans hopper would tell us that it has to do with the emergence of democratic war And world war one and the rest and really starting with the american civil war Lincoln began it all like so much other evil stuff And wilson and the british picked it up the british, of course always being if anything worse than the u.s As imperialists and spies and so forth But the idea that Really everybody is a legitimate target if you're working in a factory you might be making munitions If you are delivering milk why you're enabling the workers of munitions the makers of munitions and so forth so that everybody is is Everybody is can be killed and in fact as during world war two The u.s engaged in massive bombing of all cities of germany and japan Deliberately killing millions of civilians Collateral damage, you know, that's just a that's just a those are just words so I hope the people of the eu The good people of the eu and there are many great people of the and the wonderful movements That are against the eu And tend to be peace movements. I was very glad to see nijal forage The great leader of brexit Condemned this attack on syria And that's the way I think a lot of the court learned according to the london telegraph That's the view of all the right-wing populists so-called in europe They don't like war They don't like intervention They really have many libertarian things about them so There's always hope but there's only hope In saying no in thinking no in withholding your consent from these people Uh, not in worshiping the military Not in worshiping the agencies of government not in worshiping the government not in worshiping politicians um We have to withdraw withhold Create our own values based on our own religions our own love of freedom Uh and not pay any attention I don't I don't say there's anything wrong with watching the media Although I was influenced some years ago by a great article That argued that watching fox lowered your IQ But of course if you watch these channels and you believe them, um, you have you know, you're certainly your stock of knowledge is devalued And lowered of actual knowledge because of course they're all fake news It's supposed to be I was very glad to have blue rockwells.com Put on the list of fake news sites the 200 fake news sites Uh, but fake news is stuff the government doesn't want you to hear Government doesn't want you to believe these things. You're not supposed to read it And we have google and facebook of course cooperating with the suppression of this so-called fake news And uh on the other hand as daniel pointed out there still is uh great things going on among young people And among social media Um, I'm told I did not see this myself that Trending on twitter number one yesterday and today was the hashtag fire jared kushner So that's not exactly of course the kind of thing we hear We hear in public and I don't I don't Think we should maybe draw any conclusions from the fact that mr. kushner Um, the son-in-law and most powerful advisor to president trump owns an office building at 666 fifth avenue So interesting Sorry any more Oh, professor butler schaefer you're including remarks that reminded me of the uh old isonhower stevensson presidential Uh, they weren't debates. They were just speeches and they were being shown at a particular mental hospital and the Hospital custodians had to turn them off because it was so upsetting to the patients I Really been interested in this division or not division the contrast between individual thinking and the kind of collective group think that has been alluded to today and I think that the strength of either of these approaches individual thought versus group thought either Create civilizations or destroys them and I think that may be where we are right now randolph borne Uh, address this I think when he talked about the power of war to transform individual thinking into The advocacy of policies and programs. None of them would think of doing individually And when there's talk that began I think with the clinton administration and carried over into the bush administration about impeachment I did an article Suggesting that maybe it's the american people that should be impeached Because they haven't really performed the task which I think is is burden upon all of us to question Those who would presume to rule us I have long been of the view that people men and women Have a moral duty to prevent their children from being ruled by tyrannies I was wondering if you have any thought on that. Well, I couldn't agree with you more and I just You reminded me of a point that the late joe sober and made when he was opposing the the war in iraqi said Imagine that they would put a seven year old iraqi Little girl on television and say what we're going to do is we're going to stab her to death If you are willing to go to war this is going to be the start and of course everybody would be horrified What a you know, what a how could you say such a thing? What an horrible event and yet of course they were going to be so many thousands Perhaps hundreds of thousands of of iraqi little girls who died it through the american sanctions and then through the wars 500,000 if we remember iraqi children died because of the sanctions and and the evil secretary of state Albright was asked about it and she said We think it's worth it. I thought you Yeah Yeah, especially because mrs. Albright could use a little uh sanctions herself. I must say and Uh, do we have time david for one more question one more question? Uh Lou several times in your remarks you mentioned the word chaos I think it was very appropriately mentioned In this environment where we're inundated daily with the competing propaganda from Very skilled propaganda machines the search for truth becomes very difficult You mentioned several years ago in a misa circle event A story that came out of the soviet union in his waning years About a party official who was traveling through the countryside his big car had a flat And the locals tried to help him fix the flat opened the trunk salamis all over the place They couldn't get those There was they almost beat him to death or something like that. Yeah, you mentioned that in our time The internet may serve that same purpose as the salamis in that trunk What do you think currently about the possibility the internet is so Full now of competing propaganda the search for truth is difficult It is but the latest on your opinion, but the the internet has made it possible I'll tell you it was very very difficult before the internet you had to Have access to a uh a big international newsstand for example In your city where you could get foreign papers and foreign publications some of which you could subscribe to No way in heck you could subscribe to afford to subscribe to all of them And you had american publications, but they tended to be very obscure So as much now it's much easier. So it's still very difficult But i'll just mention the great eric margolese who Unfortunately, couldn't be here for this conference, but he has a very interesting Column today on lurockwell.com called bomb the usual arabs and ended he he talks about Uh, he thinks that part of at least part of what was going on and that's been been mentioned earlier too Was the humiliation of president g of china Here he is arriving at mara lago. I guess we have to call it war a lago now To have dinner which is already He's in a supplicant position that he's doing that and then he's totally humiliated by his ally syria Can't forget. China is an ally of syria too Um In margolese says Trump is lucky he didn't just leave take his plane back and go Because of this horrendous insult to him. So this wasn't insult. This is again all part of the imperial strategy of There really only two countries in the world that don't Bow to the u.s. They don't bow the knee to the u.s. At least on some things That's russia and china. So who are the two places? We're supposed to hate Who are the two places? We're supposed to be ready to go to war for um Here we He Eric points out we're supposed to go to war with china because they've put some turned some atolls in the south china sea um Into military bases. He said how is that any different from the u.s? aircraft carriers patrolling those same areas that are all excuse me just in effect roving military bases um Some years ago. I saw an article by bill crystal denouncing the chinese He said the chinese seek to be the the important power in the south china sea I thought oh, you know, that's pretty horrible it's like Somebody accused in the u.s. Of seeking to be the major power in the gulf of mexico but of course If you understand that according to the official ideology we are the acceptable Exceptional nation not only were the greatest the best the richest and all the rest of it. Of course, that's a lot of that's not true um The rules don't apply to us. In fact, not only do the rules not apply to us We make the rules we impose the rules and you better obey So in japan excuse me china and russia are not obeying. Therefore, they must be crushed both these of course countries have uh thermonuclear weapons and It's really why this is a very scary thing. Thank god for ron paul Who's our next speaker?