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....

Scott interviews William Arkin about his recent Newsweek article discussing the the government’s various contingency plans—both public and secret—to keep a functioning, constitutional government alive during a national crisis. He is not so concerned about the introduction of martial law as usually conceived, which he considers unlikely, but worries about something called devolving succession, a process by which a group outside the usual, public line of succession could declare themselves a...

Jim Bovard shares the story of the death of Duncan Lemp, a 21-year-old Maryland man recently killed by police in his home in the middle of the night. The police aren’t releasing their side of the story yet, but it looks as though Lemp hadn’t even been charged with any crimes—police were simply executing a search warrant on what they deemed a “high-risk” target. The SWAT team threw stun grenades into his room, where he and his pregnant girlfriend were sleeping, then shot Lemp to death. Scott...

Scott interviews Ryan McMaken about the current coronavirus-induced financial slowdown and what it might mean in terms of the next big crash. McMaken explains that with America’s incredibly over-financialized economy, practically the only tool that the government knows how to use is huge injections of liquidity directly into the financial sector. This of course only eases the pain temporarily, delaying (and worsening) the eventual popping of the bubble. One danger Scott and McMaken foresee is...

Joe Lauria discusses the latest with Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange. Manning has finally been released after a year in jail for contempt of court after refusing to testify against Assange in his extradition trial. Assange is still being held while his trial in Britain is underway. The trial will determine whether he will be extradited to the United States to face charges under the espionage act, which Lauria says are totally outrageous. As far as he can tell, what Assange did with the...

Scott is joined by Kelley Vlahos, executive editor at The American Conservative, to talk about the release, at long last, of Chelsea Manning, who was being held in federal jail for refusing to testify in the Julian Assange case. After a year in jail and a suicide attempt, a judge finally said that Manning’s testimony isn’t really necessary anymore and ordered her release. She will still be responsible for the hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines for her refusal to testify. Vlahos also...

Pat McGeehan recounts his experience in the most recent West Virginia state legislative session trying to pass his “Defend the Guard” legistlation. He describes the many battles involved in introducing a bill like this, waged both behind the scenes in the form of threats and bullying, and publicly in the form of media coverage. McGeehan’s opponents claim that the bill could cause West Virginia to lose federal funding, which he says is untrue, or at least greatly exaggerated. More brazenly,...

Scott interviews Dave DeCamp about the latest news in the OPCW whistleblower saga, in which yet another whistleblower has now come forward, bringing the total to four. The employees, mostly anonymous, have claimed that their assessments of the alleged chemical attack in Douma in 2018 pointed to a false flag designed to incur U.S. intervention, rather than to a real attack by Assad on his own people—but these findings were ultimately disregarded. The mainstream media continues to devote almost...

Stephen Zunes talks about Joe Biden’s shameful history helping to advocate for the invasion of Iraq in 2002 and 2003. These days he claims he was caught up in the aftermath of 9/11 and was simply mistaken about the intelligence, like everyone else who voted for the war. But Zunes reminds us that Biden was chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at that time, with a Democratic-majority congress. With his influence, he probably could have stopped the war singlehandedly. If that weren’t...

Scott interviews Andrew Cockburn about Russia’s supposed new hypersonic missiles, which are said to have the ability to elude conventional missile defense systems, potentially making the U.S. a target for a nuclear strike with little that could be done to defend ourselves. The problem? These missiles almost certainly can’t exist. Cockburn explains all the problems that American engineers have faced in trying to design hypersonic weapons, inferring that the Russians must have come up against...

Dave DeCamp discusses a brand new MIT study into the Bolivian presidential election of November 2019 that resulted in the ouster of Evo Morales over claims of election fraud. The new study finds no such evidence, claiming that all the supposed red flags were perfectly consistent with what should be expected from the country’s elections. It’s true that Morales was defying the term limits outlined in the Bolivian constitution, but a court had ruled before the election that his bid was...

Scott interviews Branko Marcetic about his new book, Yesterday’s Man: The Case Against Joe Biden, which explores the arc of Biden’s decades-long political career. Marcetic explains that Biden has never really had serious ideological commitments, and instead has simply wanted power and prestige since he was a kid. This has led to a life of switching positions on major issues when he perceived that it would be to his benefit, as he has done on the wars in the Middle East, the drug wars at...

Dan McKnight of BringOurTroopsHome.us talks about the “Defend the Guard” movement popping up in state legislatures around the country. The legislation on which the movement is based calls for an end to the calling up of states’ national guard troops to federal service without an explicit declaration by congress. McKnight also explains the way conservatives of all stripes are starting to unite around the idea that America cannot keep fighting these endless wars, a growing consensus which is...