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.
The United States government has been striking Venezuela through actions including imposing sanctions and pushing for replacing the president of Venezuela.
US efforts to overthrow governments in Latin America extend beyond Venezuela. In the November 16 episode of Five Minutes Five Issues, I talked about US National Security Advisor John Bolton calling Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua a “Troika of Tyranny” and saying that “[u[nder President Trump, the United States is taking direct action against all three regimes to defend the rule of law, liberty, and basic human decency in our region.”
In a Wednesday Twitter post, Bolton indicated the US will be ramping up efforts against the Nicaragua government, writing:
The US denounces the Nicaraguan regime’s repression of peaceful protestors, violence against independent media, and reluctance to concede to the demands of the Nicaraguan people. These actions will not go unanswered.
Issue two.
It pays to be skeptical of media reports.
Kurt Nimmo wrote this week at kurtnimmo.blog that, while “[f]ollowing the murder of fifty Muslims at a mosque in Christchurch New Zealand, the corporate media went into overdrive, describing the alleged shooter as a white supremacist Trump supporter,” the manifesto attributed to the shooter does not support that pat characterization.
Instead, explains Nimmo, that absurd so-called manifesto has “glaring incongruities” and presents a very different picture. Nimmo writes:
If we read a “manifesto” attributed to the accused shooter, Brenton Tarrant, we discover he followed the writing of Candace Owens, a “conservative” black woman, and predicts he will be set free like Nelson Mandela.
Tarrant—if he is indeed the author of this professed manifesto—also criticized the leadership of President Trump and described himself as an “eco-fascist,” a socialist, a libertarian, an anarchist, and at the same time a follower of the Norwegian psychopath Anders Breivik, a self-described white nationalist.
Issue three.
At a Monday presidential campaign event in Mississippi, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) proclaimed her support for eliminating the constitutionally-mandated Electoral College.
Also this week, Joe Wolverton, II wrote at The New American that Colorado has become the twelfth state to enact legislation that could prevent the Electoral College from ensuring presidential elections are decided on a state-by-state basis.
The legislation joins Colorado with the eleven other states in the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact that would be activated upon states controlling a majority of electoral votes, now 270, having joined the compact. The compact members are over half-way there, at 181 votes, writes Wolverton.
Once the compact is activated, each member state would award its Electoral College votes to the person determined to have won the national popular vote, irrespective of how people voted in the state.
Issue four.
In last week’s episode of Five Minutes Five Issues, I talked about the New Mexico House of Representatives approving a marijuana legalization bill. That bill ended up not becoming law after the state Senate failed to act on it. Still, Paul Armentano wrote Monday at the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) website that the New Mexico legislature did approve some significant cannabis law changes. These include marijuana decriminalization, an expansion of the state’s medical marijuana program, and a law to take advantage of national hemp farming legalization adopted last year via the US Farm Bill. Also, marijuana legalization could become reality next year in New Mexico. Armentano relates that Governor Lujan Grisham declared she will add legalization to the 2020 legislative agenda.
Issue five.
Paul Armentano of NORML and Jacob Sullum of Reason are two people I turn to for information and analysis regarding the drug war. On May 18, they will join Ron Paul in Houston, Texas to speak at a Ron Paul Institute conference titled “Winning the War on the War on Drugs.”
You can find more information about the conference and purchase conference tickets 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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