Nozomi Hayase joins the show to talk about Wikileaks, given all the recent news about Julian Assange. Hayase explains Assange’s background and the founding of Wikileaks, arguing that its mission is critical for a free society today. If leakers and whistleblowers aren’t protected, we lose a powerful check on government control of information. She explains that if people think we live under a free democracy, no one will be motivated to reform the things that need changing, and many...

Sheldon Richman talks about the latest with the migrant caravan and President Trump’s reaction to it. He points out how odd it is for Trump supporters to justify all the bad things he does by saying “Obama did it too”. Wouldn’t that mean they should either love Obama or hate Trump? Libertarians are fairly consistent with that standard, but pretty much no one else in politics seems to be. Scott and Sheldon continue to discuss how the war on drugs is largely to blame for migrants coming up in...

Ted Carpenter rejoins the show to discuss both of his recent articles for The American Conservative. The first outlines Libya’s political history since the ouster of Gaddafi, in which several promised democratic elections have come and gone. Now politicians are promising an election in early 2019, but Carpenter thinks this one too either won’t happen, or will be in some way illegitimate. His second article discusses the turmoil in Ukraine and how U.S. and NATO policy have worsened the...

David Vine makes the case that the U.S.’s roughly 800 military bases in over 130 countries are harmful not only to those countries’ interests, but to America’s own self-interest as well. His movement seeks to bring together people from all parties to force political change in Washington. Discussed on the show: “Left-Right Alliance for Closing U.S. Military Bases Around the World” (Institute for Public Accuracy) “11/5/18 Stephen Walt on a Realist Foreign Policy” (Libertarian Institute)...

Journalist George Joseph talks to Scott about the significant ramp up in federal gun prosecutions during Jeff Sessions’ tenure, and continuing even now that he’s gone. The idea behind his program was to target the “trigger-pulling” criminals, but in reality it targets a lot of people with previous drug possession charges, who might normally be able to own a gun, but are now forbidden from doing so because of their records. Many of the cases have even already been adjudicated at the state...

Hunter DeRensis joins the show to talk about his recent article for the American Conservative Magazine. He cites Stein’s law, named for economist Herbert Stein, which says that if something can’t go on forever, it will stop. This seems obvious, but people frequently avoid its conclusions when looking at an issue like the American empire. DeRensis worries that the U.S. is too extended and too far in debt to keep going on our current track for much longer. At some point the big crash simply has...

Max Blumenthal talks about the Azov Battalion, a U.S.-backed Neo-Nazi group in Ukraine, and their efforts to train and educate American sympathizers. Once funded by the Obama administration, the group now wields some real power in their region and hopes to spread their ideology in ours. For all their talk about the rise of white supremacy, Blumenthal explains, the U.S. media refuses to cover this scandal because it undermines Obama’s policies. Scott mentions that much of the strife in Eastern...

Tom Woods comes back on the show to promote his flagship product, Liberty Classroom, an adult enrichment program designed to correct “educational malpractice”. Scott Horton Show listeners can use the promo code “HORTON” to take $200 off the master membership, which includes all the courses Tom did for the Ron Paul Home School curriculum. Scott will also throw in a signed copy of Fool’s Errand. Liberty Classroom features courses in history and economics taught by prominent libertarian scholars...

Ramzy Baroud comes back on the show to talk about the continuing injustice suffered by the Palestinian people at the hands of the Israeli government. The death toll of protestors shot by Israeli gunmen is now over 200, with thousands more wounded. Many Americans look at the situation and think that Israel has every right to defend its border. But Baroud explains that that’s not how we should be thinking about it—Israel is basically laying siege these people, controlling their movements along...

Scott interviews Ray McGovern about James Clapper’s new memoir, Facts and Fears: Hard Truths from a Life in Intelligence. They touch on Clapper’s role in the buildup to the Iraq War, which he now admits, including one all-too-predictable phenomenon: Once a certain amount of time and money had been invested in mapping and other intel efforts in the Middle East, it became impossible to shut them down. Now determined to justify their own existence, these agencies were happy to provide whatever...

Gareth Porter rejoins the show to talk North Korea, the New York Times, and the insidious influence of arms contractors on United States foreign policy decisions. Porter explains how easy it is for journalists to make claims like "North Korea has an illicit nuclear program" without needing to provide hard evidence. Most people don't pay close enough attention to be able to question claims like that, but they can easily be used as evidence for the need for military intervention. Much of the...

John Feffer joins the show for an update on the peace talks between North and South Korea. He optimistically describes the nascent process of dismantling parts of the DMZ, including guard towers and mine fields, and also establishing a no-fly zone there. As usual, the American media is happy to ignore all of this. Feffer reminds us that South Korean President Moon Jae-in is really the driving force behind the negotiations, but he seems happy to give lots of credit to President Trump, who...

Patrick Martin, of the World Socialist Web Site, comes back on the show for an update on his last appearance. 11 of the democratic candidates he mentioned last time won their congressional races, and 7 more came very close, which he says is a fairly strong performance but probably not quite the one they had hoped for. These new representatives all come from backgrounds in the military or intelligence agencies, and instead of using their experience as a principled basis for opposing war, they...

Sheldon Richman talks about his latest article for the Libertarian Institute, in which he spotlights a new documentary exposing the smear efforts of various pro-Israel groups against anyone standing up for the rights of Palestinians, particularly on American college campuses. These groups conflate anti-Zionism—which itself has allies among many secular and religious Jews—with outright anti-semitism or support for terrorism. Never mind the fact that Palestinians are also a Semitic people, and...

The great Tom Woods joins the show in honor of the hundred-year anniversary of Armistice Day to give a rundown of World War I. Decades of complex alliances and arms races, he explains, led to the powder keg that erupted catastrophically in 1914 with a single assassination. After many bloody months with little to show for it, the countries of Europe were on the breaking point, and a “peace without victory” looked imminent…that is, until the U.S. entered the war. Because the politics of Europe...