Scott interviews Doug Bandow about his recent article for the National Interest, which discusses the effects of the coronavirus on U.S. relations with North Korea. Bandow explains how after years of hand-wringing over the imminent threat posed by Kim Jong-un’s aggressive nuclear posturing, and the need for America to respond strongly, everyone forgets all about it as soon as an actual emergency like the current pandemic emerges. If North Korea really posed an existential threat to the United...

Hassan El-Tayyab talks to Scott about the dire humanitarian situation in Yemen, where the U.S. continues to help Saudi Arabia wage an aggressive war against the Middle East’s poorest country. Scott reminds us that President Trump could end the war with a single phone call, but is too concerned with the arms contracts with the Saudi government to risk jeopardizing the relationship. Things are already desperate for the Yemeni people, who have a hard time getting food, medicine, and clean water....

Scott talks to Andrew Bacevich about the ways U.S. military spending over the last few decades has indebted our country and will continue to impoverish future generations. The mistakes go back to America’s squandering of its Cold War peace dividend in the early 1990s, drastically expanding its empire in Europe and Asia instead of shrinking the military and focusing on prosperity at home. This problem escalated under Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama with more spending, more wars in more...

Ted Carpenter discusses the possible ramifications of the coronavirus on both the economy and our personal liberties. He first reminds us that this is not a question of sacrificing economic productivity for the sake of saving lives, as some would have us believe—shutting down huge sectors of the economy itself threatens human lives through increased risk to the most vulnerable, ruined careers, and increased deaths related to stress and despair. Carpenter also worries that it will be difficult...

Charlie Davis talks about his project, Skate Palestine, which is trying to spread the sport of skateboarding to Palestinians in the West Bank. He says that Palestinians, already perceived by the state of Israel as outsiders in their own homeland, are in some ways perfectly suited to skateboarding culture, which historically has also attracted outsiders and misfits. He even hopes that skateboarding can provide an opportunity for Israeli and Palestinian youth to meet on neutral terms and...

Scott interviews Eli Clifton about the U.S. sanctions regime against Iran. These sanctions were already having a severe impact on the ability of Iranian civilians to conduct business and buy necessary goods, and in the face of coronavirus they could turn an already bad situation into a humanitarian disaster. None of this has deterred the sanctions hawks in the Trump administration from sticking to their idea that by pressuring a country’s population you can weaken its government. This has...

Scott interviews Reese Erlich about his latest antiwar.com column, which describes the dangerous game being played by the war hawks in Washington as they ratchet up tensions with Iran. The Trump administration has retaliated several times against Katib Hezbollah targets in Iraq for alleged attacks on U.S. military bases there, and of course ordered the assassination of Qasem Soleimani in January. These acts of force could easily blossom into full-scale war, but even if they don’t, they still...

Patrick Jaicomo of the Institute for Justice discusses the (brief) history of the “qualified immunity” doctrine, which makes it very difficult for civilians to sue government agents for constitutional rights violations. Jaicomo breaks down the different types of legal immunity, and the ways in which it’s still possible, sometimes, to seek redress for unjust killings, thefts, and other abuses by government officials. Usually, however, the state protects its own, at the expense of ordinary...

Scott talks to David Stockman about the fate of the economy after the coronavirus-induced shutdown and the multi-trillion dollar bailouts being undertaken by the U.S. government. Stockman is much more concerned about the economic ramifications than about the virus itself, and not because businesses are being forced to close for a few weeks, but primarily because we’ve been living under a crony capitalist regime of corporate welfare and unsound money for decades on end. The only solution any of...

Scott Paul discusses the looming cholera outbreak in Yemen as the country prepares for yet another rainy season. Thanks to U.S.-backed Saudi bombing of critical infrastructure, the people of Yemen lack the tools to fight cholera: basic nutrition and clean water. Paul describes the state of the overrun, under-equipped Yemeni hospitals, warning of their inability to deal with the current crisis, let alone what could happen if the coronavirus spreads there. Scott reminds the audience that...

Mike Swanson offers his take on the current virus-induced stock market downturn. What has surprised him most so far is the fact that assets are down across the board, unlike previous recessions, which might see a decline in stocks offset by a jump in precious metals. This suggests that the real panic hasn’t actually hit yet, and that we are likely to see a lull before another big downturn. He and Scott are worried for the economy, but knew even before the coronavirus that something like this...

Scott talks to Philip Weiss about the latest in Israeli politics, where Benjamin Netanyahu still has neither been removed from power in a decisive election, nor tried for his corruption charges. His main opponent, Benny Gantz, may now be offered the chance to form a minority government, but if he cannot, there could be yet another round of elections. But with the global coronavirus outbreak, Weiss explains that Netanyahu’s approval ratings are now as high as ever—he and Scott think there’s...

Tim Shorrock shares what might be a positive side to the global coronavirus outbreak: a chance for the U.S. government to relax sanctions on Iran and North Korea. Shorrock thinks it would be easy for President Trump to announce that these sanctions will no longer be enforced, if he wanted to, and that Congress is unlikely to prevent such a move. A crisis like the coronavirus helps demonstrate how awful it is to victimize the civilians of a foreign country with economic sanctions, which can...

Scott talks to Gareth Porter about the New York Times’ continued efforts to bolster the story that Russia both interfered in the 2016 presidential election and continues to do so in the lead up to the 2020 election. This time around, they allege, Russian actors are working on behalf of both President Trump, and also Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary race. Porter reviews some of the reasons why these claims are spurious, and he and Scott rehash a few of the Times’ other great blunders....