A new episode of Five Minutes Five Issues posted on Friday. 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.
Ron Paul Institute Chairman Ron Paul suggested in his column this week that Americans should take inspiration from the Brexit vote. Indeed, the United States government should exit a few things, writes Paul, such as NATO, which Paul calls a “Cold War relic” that is “stirring up conflict,” including with military exercises on the Russian border. Also on Paul’s exit list are so-called free trade agreements designed to benefit “well-connected elites,” the PATRIOT Act, and the Federal Reserve that funds US wars.
Paul concludes:
We should make a longer list of those things we would like to get out of. I am only getting started.
Issue two.
Back in May, I commented in a Five Minutes Five Issues episode regarding the US House of Representatives and Senate including provisions in Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) appropriations legislation that would allow VA doctors to recommend marijuana to patients in accordance with state law. Since the two legislative bodies passed appropriations bills that were not identical, the next move was to create a special conference committee of House and Senate members to reconcile the bills.
Such reconciliation tends to be a big deal when a provision is in one bill and not in the other or if the two bill have widely divergent provisions. Then the reconciled bill will have a provision quite different from the House or Senate bill or even from both bills.
But, sometimes bills to be reconciled contain two provisions that would both move the law in the same direction, as in this case. Then, the expectation is that one or the other provision, or a similar compromise provision, will be in the final bill.
That was not the result in this case. Instead, last week, the conference committee entirely left out the marijuana law liberalization from the reconciled bill. The House immediately approved the conference committee’s bill. The Senate has not yet voted on it.
Behind the scenes, drug warriors are still pulling the strings.
Issue three.
Last summer California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law some of the most onerous children’s vaccination mandates in the country. This left many families with homeschooling as the only means to escape forced adherence to the state’s vaccination schedule.
Will California, other states, or the US government next come after our pets?
New York City veterinarian Timothy Mann explains in his Tuesday Dogster article why he does not just give every dog vaccinations according to a predetermined schedule. Among his reasons are that immune-system-attacking vaccines can cause adverse reactions and that vaccines do not always work, such as when a dog’s “immune system is down, whether from being sick or being stressed.”
Issue four.
Keith Stroup of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) wrote in a Monday editorial that a recurring survey of thousands of Colorado middle and high school students confirms there has been no increase in students’ regular marijuana use since the state’s marijuana legalization.
That is interesting. But, the youth marijuana use issue was always a nonsensical distraction in the legalization debate. As Stroup writes, it is a “rather silly argument that adults should only be allowed to engage in conduct appropriate for adolescents.”
Issue five.
The US government’s mass surveillance took another step forward last week with Hawaii Governor David Ige signing into law putting Hawaii residents who own guns, as well as visitors to Hawaii who bring guns with them, into a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) database. Expect more states to join in the surveillance expansion. This is in addition to states dumping mental health information, driver license photos, and other information into US surveillance databases over the last few years.
Big Brother is receiving much help from Hawaii and other Little Brothers.
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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.
