Five & One: October 4, 2026

Why North Korea’s new general is no cause for concern, and why T-Mobile is blocking medical marijuana ads.

1. Professor questions the role of the president

More than 26,500 people crowded onto University of Wisconsin-Madison’s campus to see President Obama last Tuesday. Obama spoke at a daytime rally in an effort to close the so-called “enthusiasm gap” among young Democrats and to inspire them to vote in the midterm elections.

While the UW-Madison campus is typically seen as liberal, not everyone was willing to alter their Tuesday schedule. Humanities professor and former Republican Congressional candidate John Sharpless sent a letter to his students explaining his unwillingness to cancel his afternoon lecture. “President Obama will appear on campus as a representative of the Democratic Party. While he is certainly our President, he is not here as the chief executive of the United States of America,” he stated.

Obama’s visit and Sharpless’s subsequent letter raises an interesting question about the president’s role during midterm elections. Should the president act as the leader of his party or leader of the country? According to Sharpless, it’s a calculated risk. “If a president commits himself too much to the alt-year election, and it goes poorly, rightly or wrongly it will be interpreted as some kind of negative about their popularity,” he said.

2. T-Mobile tries to censor texts

A suit between T-Mobile and “short-code” texting company EZ Texting began in federal court last week. EZ Texting provides a service which allows its customers to send automated text messages to consumers who text a designated word to EZ Texting’s T-Mobile-assigned short-code number. Basically, they’re the company which sends consumers recipes when they text “yummy” to 12345.

EZ Texting is accusing T-Mobile of blocking texts sent by customer WeedMaps.com, a California medical marijuana distribution site, because of its content. T-Mobile is arguing that EZ Texting is required to submit its customers for T-Mobile’s review; but because EZ Texting failed to do so, T-Mobile has the right to suspend service.

While this legal dispute may at first seem like yet more corporate squabbling, the case raises an important question about the extent to which the federal government should protect wireless messages from corporate censorship. Paralleling the debate over whether government should enforce network neutrality, this question is a classic example of new questions the rise of technological innovation is posing to policymakers. Essentially, do wireless carriers (or, for that matter, Internet Service Providers) have the right to restrict what content flows through their networks?

3. House votes to toughen up on China

If China and the United States are in a trading game of sorts, the House of Representatives just upped the ante. Last week, the House passed a bill that could allow the Obama administration to impose tariffs on Chinese imports, threatening its second largest trading partner and $300 billion worth of goods.

The bill, sponsored by Ways and Means Committee Chairman Sander M. Levin, could give the Obama Administration power to tax nearly all Chinese goods brought into the United States. It passed with overwhelming bipartisan support—348 to 79.

It’s an effort to pressure the Chinese to raise the value of their currency. The low value of the Chinese renminbi allows the country to sell its products cheaply, cheaper than most American companies can. The threat of a tariff could push the two countries to find a solution, but some worry it may cause backlash.

But would China be bold enough to actually incite a trade war? Probably not. Will the Senate and President Obama actually turn the bill into law? Same answer. However, it does send a signal to both China and the U.S. government that something needs to be done.

4. Suicides raise legal questions about bullying

In the past three weeks, more than 5 teenagers have killed themselves in response to school and online bullying. The latest suicides, in Indiana and Minnesota, raise an important question about online harassment and the severity of this crime.

Bullying can often be part of a young person’s childhood experience. But what is the point at which juvenile bullying becomes criminal harassment? Laws in most states stipulate that if in the commission of a misdemeanor a person is killed, the offender can be coupled with a felony manslaughter charge.

In the recent rash of suicide cases, could a bully be charged as a felon? There is no legal precedent to address the issue. The most public case, involving a mother posing as a boy and taunting a young girl, doesn’t begin to set the standard.

Current debate centers around where responsibility lies: some argue that schools should be responsible for the psychological well-being of the students, but opponents consider individual students accountable for the effects of their bullying.

5. McDonald’s workers may lose health coverage

McDonald’s warned last week that 30,000 of its employees may find themselves without healthcare coverage because of regulations in the recently-passed healthcare law.

McDonald’s currently provides employees the option of a mini-med insurance plan. These plans allow a worker to pay $14 a week for $2,000 of coverage, or $32 a week for $10,000 of coverage. However, these mini-med plans do not meet new government regulations that mandate that insurance plans spend 80 to 85 percent of revenue on healthcare expenditures because of the plans’ low payouts and high administrative costs.

McDonald’s has requested a waiver from the government to exempt their plans from these regulations. If the waiver is not granted, many employees would lose insurance coverage until the recently passed healthcare law’s benefits take effect in 2014.

There also could be deeper implications for others covered by similar plans, especially college students. Most healthcare plans offered by universities are very similar to mini-med plans. Students could find themselves without the low-cost healthcare coverage they rely on when universities renegotiate their healthcare plans in a year. While it is unlikely that the government will deny a waiver for universities’ healthcare plans, the ruling on McDonalds could set a precedent that could threaten the healthcare coverage for tens of thousands of college students.

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0. Kim Jong Il names son four-star general

Last week North Korea held its first Workers Party congress in thirty years. At the party meeting, Kim Jong Un, son of leader Kim Jong Il, was made a four-star general along with his elderly aunt, despite neither person having ever served in the military.

Kim Jong Il seems to be grooming his son to take control of the impoverished, nuclear-armed country of North Korea, but one should not expect big changes in North Korea’s attitude or policy.

Little is known about Kim Jong Un, but sources state he has a very similar personality to his father. This could indicate that North Korea’s aggressive and isolationist tendencies will continue. Regardless of North Korea’s nominal leadership status, the nation’s policies are ultimately set by the military.

Politics & Policy is a new, non-partisan political publication looking to increase political conversation on campus and around the country.