A new episode of Five Minutes Five Issues is posted. 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.
On Friday, Chelsea Manning was jailed after Manning refused to testify before a United States grand jury apparently impaneled to enable prosecutions related to WikiLeaks.
The writer Caitlin Johnston went to the heart of the matter in an article at Medium, writing:
The United States government has just re-imprisoned one of the nation’s greatest whistleblowers to coerce her into helping to destroy the world’s greatest leak publisher, both of whom exposed undeniably true facts about war crimes committed by that same United States government.
Issue two.
Kurt Nimmo, in an article last week at kurtnimmo.blog, examined the fraudulent charges of antisemitism being thrown at new United States House of Representatives Member Ilhan Omar (D-MN) based on Omar’s criticism of the Israel government and of some people seeking to influence US foreign policy to serve the Israel government’s objectives.
Nimmo makes an important observation that, just as there is no reason to believe Omar’s attacked comments are about religion or ethnicity, neither is there reason to believe that all the criticism of her comments is due to her being Muslim. Concluding his article, Nimmo writes:
Finally, Ilhan Omar made a mistake when she said the reason she is being attacked is because she’s a Muslim, which is merely a bonus for her accusers. The fact is anybody who criticizes Israel—regardless of race, gender, or religion—will be targeted.
Issue three.
In an article at the Ron Paul Institute website last week titled “Making Marijuana Legalization More Freedom-Friendly,” I wrote about people living where marijuana legalization has occurred in America not being able to purchase marijuana products in places including grocery stores where they can purchase alcoholic beverages.
Unknown to me at the time, Whole Foods founder John Mackey had said during a Texas Tribune public event the day before that, if marijuana legalization is passed in Texas, “chances are good that grocery stores will be selling” marijuana.
I hope he is correct. Back in 2015, the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee approved Texas state Rep. David Simpson’s legislation to treat marijuana, for adults, the same as other agricultural products such as tomatoes. That legislation, which is far more radical than legalization legislation that has been approved in ten states so far, did not end up receiving a floor vote. But, the bill’s success in committee suggests Texas may take a very expansive approach when it does finally legalize marijuana.
Issue four.
Some fuddy-duddies complained about actors being dressed in Ku Klu Klan costumes in a play performed at Theodore Roosevelt High School in South Dakota last weekend. Then, as reported by Shelly Conlon at the Argus Leader, a Sioux Falls School District spokesperson issued a statement apologizing for the play having been performed.
The fuss is just about the costumes worn by some actors, ignoring the context of such in the play
Get over it people. The play is The Foreigner. It is a comedy. I enjoyed seeing the play performed in Texas a few years after its 1980s off-Broadway run in New York City. Here’s a spoiler: The characters in KKK costumes are not presented as heroic.
Issue five.
On Saturday May 18 in Houston, Texas, the Ron Paul Institute will host a conference regarding the war on drugs. Speakers will include Ron Paul and two individuals very informed about drug war issues — Jacob Sullum, a senior editor at Reason, and Paul Armentano, the deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).
To obtain more information, purchase “early bird” conference tickets, and reserve reduced-price guest rooms at the conference hotel, visit the web page ronpaulinstitute.org/conference.
—–
That’s a wrap.
Transcripts of Five Minutes Five Issues episodes, including links to related information, are at the Ron Paul Institute blog.
Five four three two one.
