A new episode of Five Minutes Five Issues posted on Thursday. You can listen to it, and read a transcript, below. You can also find previous episodes of the show at Stitcher, iTunes, YouTube, and SoundCloud.
Listen to the new episode here:
Read a transcript of the new episode, including links to further information regarding the topics discussed, here:
The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity welcomes you to Five Minutes Five Issues.
Starting in five four three two one.
Hello, I am Adam Dick, a Ron Paul Institute senior fellow.
Let’s start.
Issue one.
A few dozen Democratic United States House of Representatives and Senate members are staging a sit-in on the House floor this week.
Why are they doing this? A primary goal of many of the sit-in participants is for the House to vote to prevent people on the No Fly List and other US government so-called terror watch lists from buying or possessing guns.
As I discussed in last week’s Five Minutes Five Issues, these secret lists are shoddily compiled without respecting due process for people put on the lists.
And now House members are taking part in this sit-in to demand expanded use of the lists. Disgraceful.
Issue two.
Pharmacies in Texas will soon sell naloxone without requiring a doctor’s prescription. Naloxone can be used to prevent deaths from opioid overdoses. A recent easing of Texas legal restrictions on access to naloxone opened the way for the sales.
Rolling back restrictions on the sale of opioids and other currently-illegal or restricted drugs would further protect drug users from overdoses. When you buy your drugs legally, those drugs are much more likely to have predictable effects. That allows drug users to better manage their use.
Issue three.
Over and over we hear from the media that Omar Mateen killed 49 people and injured another 53 people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida earlier this month. But, both those numbers may be wrong.
Orlando Police Chief John Mina said on June 13 that it was being investigated whether police shot some of the Pulse victims.
How many deaths and injuries, if any, were due to bullets fired by police? Scott Greenfield commented Monday at Simple Justice that autopsy reports should disclose which victims, if any, police shot. Regarding the lack of disclosure of this information, Greenfield writes:
… Maybe not a single person in Pulse died because of a “good” bullet rather than a bad one. Who knows?
Well, the government knows. And the fact that they are withholding that information from the public suggests they don’t want us to know, which further suggests that they didn’t do a very good tactical job of it. The government loves telling us about the great job it does. When it screws up, not so much….
Issue four.
Are you familiar with Michèle Flournoy? She is the cofounder and chief executive officer of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), which Ron Paul Institute Chairman Ron Paul called “the flagship of the neocon wing of the Democratic Party” and “a think tank almost entirely funded by the military industrial complex.” Flournoy is also a former under secretary of defense for policy in the Obama administration.
You may hear much more from her soon. Glenn Greenwald wrote Wednesday at The Intercept that, should former US Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) become president, Flournoy is “almost-certain” to become secretary of defense.
What does this suggest about Clinton’s potential foreign policy actions? A lot, says Greenwald, who notes that Flournoy is now advocating for ramping up US military action in Syria against both the Islamic State (ISIS) and the Syrian government.
Issue five.
The Ron Paul Institute will hold its first public conference on Saturday, September 10, and you are invited.
RPI Chairman Ron Paul will speak at the conference, which will take place near Washington, DC. More speakers will be announced.
Conference tickets are on sale at a super early bird rate, and a limited number of guest rooms are available at a special discount rate.
Find out more about the RPI conference at ronpaulinstitute.org/conference.
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That’s a wrap.
Transcripts of Five Minutes Five Issues episodes, including links to related information, are at the Ron Paul Institute blog.
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