A new episode of Five Minutes Five Issues has been 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.
The cash system allows for an unmonitored “off the grid” space. This is also the reason why financial institutions and financial technology companies want to get rid of it. Cash transactions are outside the net that such institutions cast to harvest fees and data.
This is an interesting observation in Brett Scott’s Thursday Guardian article “The cashless society is a con – and big finance is behind it.”
Indeed, governments and their allies among businesses are together waging a war on cash, and for some of the same reasons — to access our wealth and to invade our privacy.
Issue two.
In the June 16 episode of Five Minutes Five Issues, I talked about how Californians would vote in November on a ballot measure proposing splitting California into three states. However, this week, a California Supreme Court order prevented the proposition from appearing on the state’s November ballot. The court will proceed in considering a legal challenge that the proposed splitting up of the state exceeds the power Californians can exercise via ballot measures. Depending on how the court ultimately decides the matter, the proposition could be voted on in a future election or be barred from consideration ever by voters.
Issue three.
In the June 30 episode of Five Minutes five Issues, I talked about a medical marijuana ballot measure having been approved that week by Oklahoma voters.
Later, the state’s Board of Health adopted rules for implementing the ballot measure, many of which were clearly not in line with the ballot measure’s mandate.
On Wednesday, Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter sought to put an end to much of the Board of Health’s effort to undermine the approved ballot measure via regulations. Hunter wrote in a letter to the Board of Health’s interim commissioner that the board’s rules to, first, limit and prohibit the sale of edible, smokable, vapable, and other forms of marijuana, and, second, require a licensed pharmacist to be present at least 40 hours a week at each dispensary, lack statutory authority because nowhere in the ballot measure text are such rules expressly or impliedly authorized. In the letter, Hunter also notes there are similar concerns about other rules imposed by the Board of Health, including but not limited to rules restricting the location of dispensaries; prohibiting dispensaries from co-locating with other businesses; requiring medical marijuana to be grown, processed, and dispensed in enclosed structures; requiring a surety bond for licensing; setting hours of operation; and limiting the amount of THC in products for sale or distribution.
Issue four.
Much attention is being paid to President Donald Trump’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court and the US Senate’s consideration of that nomination. If the Senate approves the nomination, Kavanaugh will be the second Trump appointee at the court.
Less attention has been paid to Trump’s nominations of individuals to be appellate court judges. John Gramlich notes in a Monday Pew Research Center article that Trump has successfully appointed more appeals court judges than had any presidents going back to Jimmy Carter by this point of their presidencies.
Issue five.
There has been much criticism this week of President Donald Trump expressing some skepticism about the analysis and conclusions of the so-called US intelligence community. On Wednesday, interviewer and writer Scott Horton provided at Twitter some pithy perspective on this criticism. Horton writes:
Get this: back a few years ago the “intelligence community” and the media convinced Americans (you?) that _Saddam Hussein’s Iraq_ – which barely had an army, no navy, no airforce, and no alliance with Osama [bin Laden]’s al Qaeda, – was going to attack the USA if we didn’t attack them first.
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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.
