A new episode of Five Minutes Five Issues posted today. 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.
The official attendees list of the recent Bilderberg meeting includes a sprinkling of people with academic affiliations. This may suggest that the meeting was about discussing ideas instead of about conspiring to amass more power and money.
At the Guardian on Saturday, Charlie Skelton lifted the veil on some of the academic participants. Skelton writes that Naill Ferguson, in addition to being the “Professor of History, Harvard University” noted in the official list, is also “on the board of the boutique investment firm AMG, which ‘currently manages approximately $642bn in assets.’”
Then there’s Marta Dassù, who is listed as “Senior Director, European Affairs, Aspen Institute.” Skelton notes she could instead be listed as “a director of one of the world’s largest arms companies, Finmeccanica.”
One more example: Victor Halberstadt is listed as a professor of economics. Notes Skelton, Halberstadt is “also on the board of international advisers of Goldman Sachs.”
Issue two.
After the Sunday mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, we hear proposals to bar people on the No Fly List and the United States government’s other so-called terror watch lists from buying or possessing guns.
In December, I critiqued President Barack Obama’s similar proposal. I wrote at the Ron Paul Institute that “People’s names are put on the No Fly List through an entirely secret process that allows a person to be included and retained indefinitely on the list without any evidence whatsoever that the person has any connection to terrorism.” This also is the case with other terror watch lists.
Lee Fang of The Intercept highlights an example of the absurdity: a child on a terror watch list. Here is part of the story from a class action lawsuit complaint:
Baby Doe is a 4 year [old] toddler. He was seven‐months old when his boarding pass was first stamped with the “SSSS” designation, indicating that he had been designated as a “known or suspected terrorist.” [paragraph numbers omitted]
Issue three.
Last week, US House of Representatives Members Walter Jones (R-NC) and Thomas Massie (R-KY) introduced an amendment to the legislative branch appropriations bill. The amendment would eliminate funding for former House speakers keeping offices at the House for years after leaving the speakership. Remarked Jones in a press release:
…former speakers have access to many perks and opportunities, including government pensions, book deals, lobbying, speaking engagements, and consulting. If they want an office, they can pay for it themselves.
Jones is a Ron Paul Institute Advisory Board member.
The House Rules Committee prevented the amendment from being considered on the House floor. Then, Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions (R-TX), upon the passage of the funding bill by the full House, commented that “funding for the House of Representatives has been reduced by 14% since Republicans gained its control in January 2011.” It seems leadership keeps its funding. But mere representatives who may rock the boat are forced to cut back.
Issue four.
In April, the House Armed Services Committee added to its version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) a requirement that women, like men, register with Selective Service for a potential military draft. In May, the House Rules Committee removed the women draft provision from the House’s NDAA before the bill was considered and passed on the House floor. Then, on Tuesday, the Senate passed its own NDAA that includes a women draft requirement.
Will the draft requirement be included in a common, reconciled bill that both bodies of Congress are expected to pass?
Issue five.
It was three hours after the shooting started that police entered the Pulse nightclub in Orlando over the weekend. Were the police right or wrong to wait? Either way, the people trapped, injured, and dying at Pulse for those three hours were on their own.
This is another reminder not to just trust the police will protect you.
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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.
Five four three two one.
