A new episode of Five Minutes Five Issues is out. 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.
Chelsea Manning, the military whistleblower who is running for United States Senate in the Maryland Democratic primary, would provide some uncommon perspective in the Senate judging from Manning’s interview (part one and part two) this week at Democracy Now. Manning says the US should start releasing prisoners and closing prisons. Asked about immigration policy, Manning calls for abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, as well as Customs and Border Protection, or CBP. Manning also criticizes the hundreds of US military bases overseas and the spending of hundreds of billions of dollars each year on the US military.
Manning also makes this bold declaration during the interview:
We need to start defunding, dismantling and, you know, pushing back against this gigantic, whirling death machine that we call the government and we call the state. And it’s at all levels, you know, local, state, federal, and — beyond that — the supernational agencies.
Issue two.
A couple weeks into his presidency, Donald Trump declared in a speech to the Major Cities Chiefs police organization that his administration would be “ruthless” in pursuing the war on drugs. Ruthlessness is materializing through pushing for increased penalties for people convicted of drug crimes — penalties including, as I mentioned the March 17 episode of Five Minutes Five Issues, the death penalty.
In addition, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced Monday that it “will add 250 task force officers and dozens of additional analysts to areas across America where the opioid crisis is at its worst.” The DEA claims in its announcement press release that “DEA task force officers have been some of the most essential and effective partners in building cases against drug trafficking organizations across the globe.”
Issue three.
Remember Bill Weld? He is the former Republican Massachusetts governor whose antilibertarian positions made him an odd choice for the vice presidential slot in the 2016 Libertarian Party presidential ticket. As I noted in the July 21, 2016 episode of Five Minutes Five Issues, Weld, before his nomination, was “known for urging Congress members to reauthorize portions of the PATRIOT Act that were set to expire and praising former President George W. Bush’s foreign policy — a foreign policy that included the 2003 invasion of Iraq.”
As the vice president nominee, Weld’s advocacy of antilibertarian positions continued, such as when he supported disregarding due process and gun rights by outlawing anyone listed on a US government terror watch list from possessing a gun. Weld also fixated on advocating that people vote for Hillary Clinton instead of himself and his running mate.
Weld has reemerged in the news as a plaintiff in a lawsuit. The lawsuit seeks to prevent states from allocating all Electoral College votes to the presidential candidate who wins in the respective states. The lawsuit’s success would tear down one of the barriers to centralizing power in the US government.
Issue four.
Jan Hoffman wrote in a Tuesday New York Times article about a proposed Medicare rule that would cut off payments for pain medication after “seven days of prescriptions equivalent to 90 milligrams or more of morphine daily, except for patients with cancer or in hospice.” These patients denied coverage for their pain medication will be yet more victims of the US government’s war on drugs.
Issue five.
Mark Sanford, who represents a South Carolina district in the US House of Representatives, has been added as a speaker at the Sunday, April 29 conference the Ron Paul Institute (RPI) and the Future of Freedom Foundation (FFF) are hosting in Charleston, South Carolina. Previously announced speakers are Ron Paul, Jacob Hornberger, Richard M. Ebeling, and Daniel McAdams.
Conference tickets are just five dollars each. Tickets may be purchased 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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