Theoretical Overviews Section
Introduction To Ron Paul
Watch the first 50 seconds of the following video and you will notice that one particular person (Ron Paul) is ignored even though he came within 200 votes of winning the straw poll...
The media consistently treats Ron Paul like 'he is the thirteenth floor in a hotel', yet he is the one that planted the grassroots that the establishment republicans are benefiting from now. Why is that? [Note: The media anchors all following a similar script has been dubbed 'echo chamber' and is written about here and here. ]
Ron Paul Interview On The Daily Show - Part 1
Note: Ron Paul has been consistent over many many years!
Ron Paul Interview On The Daily Show - Part 2
Note: Ron Paul believes the War on Drugs is NOT working. This view has historical precedent, see below the PBS show on Prohibition
Ron Paul Interview On The Daily Show - Part 3
Note: Ron Paul believes in 'free markets' yet there are strong views on regulations that protect property - i.e. this isn't the pure market economy as envisioned in the economic models of perfect competition, market economy and Laissez-Faire Capitalism. Ron Paul has also mentioned, in other interviews, that there would need to be a transition. In other words, a model has to be discussed and implemented to help the country move to the way the constitution originally envisioned it 'according to Ron Paul'. Also note that the constitution provides for 3 branches of government and all the States with the freedom to move around in its own internal regulatory structure would create a unique market structure that would approach the ideas of free markets as long as the rest of the economic structures remain the same (i.e. across the world). Plus, avoiding empire/nation biulding seems to be written into the constitution, and that would save allot of money!
Colbert Report Interview: Historical precedent for War on Drugs creating more druggies;
More information (and videos) about PBS's Prohibition:
PROHIBITION is a three-part, five-and-a-half-hour documentary film series directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick that tells the story of the rise, rule, and fall of the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the entire era it encompassed.
Prohibition was intended to improve, even to ennoble, the lives of all Americans, to protect individuals, families, and society at large from the devastating effects of alcohol abuse. But the enshrining of a faith-driven moral code in the Constitution paradoxically caused millions of Americans to rethink their definition of morality.
PROHIBITION is a three-part, five-and-a-half-hour documentary film series directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick that tells the story of the rise, rule, and fall of the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the entire era it encompassed.
Prohibition was intended to improve, even to ennoble, the lives of all Americans, to protect individuals, families, and society at large from the devastating effects of alcohol abuse. But the enshrining of a faith-driven moral code in the Constitution paradoxically caused millions of Americans to rethink their definition of morality.
Some Background Notes;
Bryan Stevenson and Michelle Alexander on Injustice Two talented lawyers who’ve dedicated their careers to fighting inequality, Michelle Alexander and Bryan Stevenson, join Bill Moyers on the Journal to examine justice and injustice in America 42 years after King’s death.
Alexander believes that King would be deeply troubled by the remaining inequality in America. As she tells Bill Moyers, “I think Martin Luther King would be thrilled by some of the individual progress of African Americans, but stunned, absolutely stunned and saddened, by the state of African Americans as a whole today.”
Stevenson adds that to reach King’s dream, America must address the causes of poverty, “I think in America, the opposite of poverty is justice. I think there are structures and systems that have created poverty, and have made that poverty so permanent, that until we think in a more just way about how to deal with poverty in this country, we’re never gonna make the progress that Dr. King envisioned.”
Both believe that America’s policies of mass incarceration continue the cycle of poverty. America is the largest jailer on the planet, with 2.3 million people behind bars. But the policy of mass imprisonment, unique among industrialized nations, disproportionately affects minorities, especially African American men. One in 100 adults in America is behind bars, but one in nine African American men aged 20 to 34 is behind bars. Much of this arises from the “war on drugs.” According to Human Rights Watch, African American adults have been arrested at a rate 2.8 to 5.5 times higher than white adults in every year from 1980 to 2007 {Notice the correlation to the increased use of the Southern Strategy started by Nixon & continued by Reagan and every year since then?}. Yet, according to government statistics, African Americans and whites have similar rates of illicit drug use and dealing.
Link: Bill Moyers Investigates Private Prisons
Alexander believes that King would be deeply troubled by the remaining inequality in America. As she tells Bill Moyers, “I think Martin Luther King would be thrilled by some of the individual progress of African Americans, but stunned, absolutely stunned and saddened, by the state of African Americans as a whole today.”
Stevenson adds that to reach King’s dream, America must address the causes of poverty, “I think in America, the opposite of poverty is justice. I think there are structures and systems that have created poverty, and have made that poverty so permanent, that until we think in a more just way about how to deal with poverty in this country, we’re never gonna make the progress that Dr. King envisioned.”
Both believe that America’s policies of mass incarceration continue the cycle of poverty. America is the largest jailer on the planet, with 2.3 million people behind bars. But the policy of mass imprisonment, unique among industrialized nations, disproportionately affects minorities, especially African American men. One in 100 adults in America is behind bars, but one in nine African American men aged 20 to 34 is behind bars. Much of this arises from the “war on drugs.” According to Human Rights Watch, African American adults have been arrested at a rate 2.8 to 5.5 times higher than white adults in every year from 1980 to 2007 {Notice the correlation to the increased use of the Southern Strategy started by Nixon & continued by Reagan and every year since then?}. Yet, according to government statistics, African Americans and whites have similar rates of illicit drug use and dealing.
Link: Bill Moyers Investigates Private Prisons
Link On Prisons for profit from PBS: "Corporations are running many Americans prisons, but will they put profits before prisoners?" {Turns out answer is YES!}
From CNN's Fareed Zakaria:
The chart below shows the number of prison inmates per capita in the United States compared with other major countries. The incarceration rate in the United States is more than three times that of Iran, six times that of China, and ten times that of Japan. (Source: The Economist via blogs.cfr.org/lindsay)...
From CNN's Fareed Zakaria:
The chart below shows the number of prison inmates per capita in the United States compared with other major countries. The incarceration rate in the United States is more than three times that of Iran, six times that of China, and ten times that of Japan. (Source: The Economist via blogs.cfr.org/lindsay)...
"Another chart on America's prison population from GOOD Magazine showing U.S. incarceration rates per 100,000 over time."