A new episode of Five Minutes Five Issues posted on Saturday. 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.
In the April 8, 2016 episode of Five Minutes Five Issues, I mentioned some “Never Trumpers” who were hoping a certain retired Marine Corps general would run for president as an independent against Donald Trump. The retired general could be counted on to promote much more intervention abroad than Trump would.
That hoped-for anti-Trump candidate was James Mattis. Later, president Trump appointed Mattis to be Secretary of Defense.
Mattis, I noted last year, was a board of directors member for General Dynamics, one of the biggest military contractors in the world.
In July, Trump announced his pick for secretary of the Army is Mark Esper. Since 2010, Esper worked for Raytheon, another big military contractor. In fact, Megan G. Wilson reported in The Hill in August that over the last 12 months Esper had earned over 1.5 million dollars lobbying for Raytheon.
Esper awaits a confirmation vote in the Unites States Senate.
It seems these Never Trumpers and the military-industrial complex are doing alright with Trump in the White House.
Issue two.
This week, President Trump signed an executive order allowing the US government to transfer to state and local police certain types of military equipment and weapons President Barack Obama had restricted the transfer of in 2015.
While many people are rightly pointing to Trump with accusations that he is seeking to militarize the police, it should also be acknowledged that during the Obama administration there was a huge increase in the transfer of military equipment and weapons from the US government to police. Also, in June of 2014, United States House of Representatives members rejected by a vote of 355 to 62 an amendment offered by then-Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) to impose some limits on what may be transferred.
Issue three.
When Alphabet was created and made the parent company of Google in 2015, Google’s old motto of do no evil was replaced with “do the right thing.” That year, Google’s advertising business refused to continue providing ads on antiwar.com, a website promoting noninterventionist foreign policy ideas. As antiwar.com’s Justin Raimondo confirmed on Thursday, the refusal to provide ads continues.
Recently, Google subsidiary YouTube has routinely blocked placement of advertising in episodes of the Ron Paul Liberty Report, a Ron Paul Institute program that each weekday includes discussion on topics from a pro-liberty and pro-peace perspective.
Doing the right thing? Maybe it is time for yet another motto.
Issue four.
On Monday, New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio signed into law legislation mandating a price floor of $13 per pack of cigarettes.
In New York City, cigarette prices and taxes were already among the highest in America.
Government-mandated price increases for cigarettes will result in more people in New York City seeking, and people being more motivated to sell, cheaper cigarettes on the black market.
Enforcement of the new mandate will seek to ensure that more people pay the higher prices on the legal market. And enforcement will mean individuals seeking to satisfy the demand for cheaper cigarettes will risk arrest, fines, incarceration, and even death at the hands of the laws’ enforcers. Recall that in 2014 Eric Garner was killed in manhandling and choking by New York City police after suspicion he was selling cigarettes in violation of the city’s laws.
Issue five.
Medical marijuana is not just for people.
The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) is an organization of over 89,000 veterinarians. Delegates to an AVMA summer meeting approved recommending the organization’s board of directors “investigate working with other research organizations and medical stakeholders to reclassify cannabis from Schedule 1 to Schedule 2 [of the Controlled Substances Act] to facilitate research opportunities for veterinary and human medical uses.”
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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.
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