Former Democratic US House of Representatives member from Ohio and two-time presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich is reported to be planning to announce next week his campaign for Ohio governor following his submitting paperwork with the state government on Monday to establish a campaign committee.
On Thursday, United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a memorandum in the Department of Justice (DOJ) that many people are concerned will lead to a crackdown by the US government on people acting in compliance with state laws under which, in varying ways, the growth, distribution, sale, possession, and use of marijuana is legal. While the issuing of the memorandum is an important development, there are several reasons to expect that the public support for, and the momentum in favor of, marijuana legalization will overpower any potential US government effort to counter states’ legalization.
Libertarian communicator Ron Paul strongly criticized the United States government’s war on drugs in a Saturday interview with host Michael Smerconish at CNN. The interview concerned the Thursday memorandum from US Attorney General Jeff Sessions that rescinded some prior US Department of Justice memoranda providing guidance for US prosecutors to refrain from certain prosecutions of individuals complying with liberalized state marijuana laws.
Addressing Sessions’ memorandum, Paul said that Sessions should be fired and that any attempt by Sessions to expand enforcement of US marijuana prohibition will not be successful in overriding state’s liberalizations via actions including states’ legalization of medical and recreational marijuana. Paul also took the opportunity to address the broader war on drugs, condemning it as a war on liberty.
Fifty-seven years ago this month President Dwight D. Eisenhower presented this warning in his farewell address: “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.” That warning has largely fallen on deaf ears.
Election after election people in the media throw out spurious assertions that Libertarian Party candidates cause Republicans to lose. So it was little surprise to come across an article published last week with the title “Relieved by Roy Moore’s defeat? Thank a Libertarian.” What was surprising was that this article was published at the website of the United States Libertarian Party.
In the article credited as written by party staff, Libertarian National Committee Chairman Nicholas Sarwark is quoted as saying the following in regard to the defeat of Republican nominee Roy Moore by Democratic nominee Doug Jones in the United States Senate special election last week in Alabama: “If you’re happy that Roy Moore was not elected to the Senate, thank write-in candidates like Libertarian Ron Bishop.”
Some people are expressing concern that notoriously anti-marijuana United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions will go on a marijuana prohibition enforcement rampage if a US law restraint on Department of Justice spending for prosecuting individuals complying with state medical marijuana laws lapses. But, over at Reason, Jacob Sullum presents four reasons why the lapsing of the restraint will likely lead to little or no change in regard to US government enforcement of marijuana laws in states that have legalized medical or recreational marijuana.
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.
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Soon after word came out Monday that someone had detonated a bomb in a pedestrian tunnel of the New York City subway system, people were saying the alleged bomber should not be afforded respect for his constitutional rights and should be shipped off to the United States military’s Guantanamo prison in Cuba. Fox News Senior Judicial Analyst Andrew Napolitano, however, argues in a new video commentary that it is important that the US government respect alleged bomber Akayed Ullah’s rights guaranteed under the US Constitution — including rights to be represented by a lawyer and to have a jury trial.
Interviewed Tuesday at RT, Ron Paul described the foreign policy mission of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity (RPI), which Paul founded in 2013 after completing his final term in the United States House of Representatives. Paul explains that RPI, of which Paul is chairman, has as a goal challenging interventionist United States foreign policy through changing people’s minds in the face of opposition, including from deep state and military-industrial complex influence in the media and the US Congress.
“[A]t the institute,” says Paul, “we believe that our role should be to develop friendships and trade with countries.” Paul continues:
Most every country in the world is imperfect, including ours. But, our immediate goal should be to improve ourselves and not pretend that we can tell other people how to live and who should run their countries.
Libertarian communicator and former presidential candidate Ron Paul says he is optimistic that philosophic changes taking place in America will lead to greater government respect for liberty. Paul made the assessment in a recent interview with host Marc Clair at the Lions of Liberty podcast regarding Paul’s new book The Revolution at Ten Years. “The philosophy comes first, and I think that’s where we excel,” says Paul.