2/7/20 Peter Van Buren on Impeachment, Iowa, and Chelsea Manning

Scott talks to Peter Van Buren about impeachment and the fiasco at the Iowa Caucuses, and what they mean for the Democrats’ political prospects heading into the election. Van Buren says that although President Trump’s behavior with respect to Ukraine seems a little sleazy, nothing even remotely impeachable happened, and the trials in the House and Senate were little more than shows of partisan hatred or loyalty. He also says this victory for Trump will clearly be detrimental to the democrats...

1/31/20 Sheldon Richman on Trump’s New Apartheid Vision for Israel/Palestine

Sheldon Richman discusses President Trump’s new “Vision to Improve the Lives of the Palestinian and Israeli People,” which is really just an update of last year’s “Deal of the Century.” The plan presents itself as generous and fair, but really, says Richman, it simply codifies much of the settlement and annexation of Palestinian land that Israel has been engaged in for decades, and would create what in practice would be an apartheid state. Richman says this plan is, for the most part, probably...

1/31/20 John Dennis on His Campaign to Replace Nancy Pelosi in Congress

Scott interviews John Dennis, a Republican congressional candidate from California challenging Nancy Pelosi in the upcoming election. Dennis, a businessman, says he wants to unseat Pelosi mainly because she’s terrible on issues of war and the intelligence state. These areas used to be strengths among Democrats, but since the Obama administration the left has been conspicuously silent. Dennis believes that not only are American Republicans coming around to become the antiwar party,...

1/31/20 Sam Jacobs on Lavoy Finicum’s Death and Washington’s Management of Federal Land

Sam Jacobs of Ammo.com discusses the 2016 Oregon standoff between federal agents and Ammon Bundy, Lavoy Finicum and their allies. Most listeners probably remember some of the details of the 2014 standoff in Bundy’s native Nevada, which ultimately resulted in a judge dismissing all charges with prejudice after it was shown that federal agents lied about their side of the story. Most probably aren’t as familiar with the details of a similar incident in Oregon, which led to Finicum’s death....

1/31/20 Joe Lauria on Canada’s Establishment Cold Warriors

Joe Lauria discusses the allegations that his website, Consortium News, is a puppet of the Russian government, recently leveled against them by both Canadian television network Global News, and Canada’s Communications Security Establishment. It seems that this is the now just the smear used by mainstream media and intelligence agencies against anyone who is willing to consider alternatives to their narrative. Lauria reiterates the need for a true nonpartisan consensus of libertarians,...

1/31/20 Michael Tracey on the Democrats’ New Cold War Impeachment Narrative

Scott discusses the impeachment proceedings against President Trump with journalist Michael Tracey, who says that there are some alarming allegations underneath the democrats’ blanket accusation of “abuse of power.” What they are really alleging, says Tracey, is that Trump is guilty of treason, a crime that carries the death penalty. Most alarming of all, though, is how pervasive the cold war rhetoric has become even among average democratic voters. People don’t seem to realize that this...

1/25/20 Daniel Lazare on the Democrats’ Paranoid Ukraine Fantasy

Daniel Lazare discusses the ongoing impeachment proceedings against President Trump, which he calls nothing more than a continuation of the Russiagate delusion. He and Scott rehash some of the history that has led America to the point where it even feels like Russia is a serious threat to the U.S., namely the policies of Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama. If your version of history began yesterday, it’s easy to think something must be done in response “Russian aggression,” but if you...

1/24/20 Benje Graves on Evangelical Christian Pro-War Identity Politics

Scott talks to Pastor Benje Graves about the dominance of pro-war republicanism among American protestants. Graves says that these Christians think their belief in American empire comes from a good-faith reading of the Bible, but that really it’s wrapped up in an identitarian coalition political movement that uses selective reading of scripture to enforce what they have already chosen to believe. Graves maintains that the U.S. military intervention in the Middle East clearly goes against the...

1/24/20 Daniel McAdams on the Failure of the Juan Guaido Coup in Venezuela

Daniel McAdams talks to Scott about the failed attempt to oust Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in favor of opposition leader Juan Guiado. The U.S. government has made many claims about the illegitimacy of the latest elections, and has blamed the country’s current crisis on Maduro’s failures. Really, says McAdams, this is just another example of America’s State Department making false claims and conveniently exploiting existing problems to push their chosen political narrative. Fortunately...

1/24/20 Nozomi Hayase on Glenn Greenwald and the ‘Assange Precedent’

Scott talks to Nozomi Hayase about the movement to prosecute Glenn Greenwald for cybercrimes in Brazil. Greenwald is accused of helping to steal confidential text messages, as opposed to simply publishing information that had been hacked by someone else. This is exactly the same accusation being leveled against Julian Assange, says Hayase, but is really just a flimsy pretext for going after journalists that are trying to expose state malfeasance. Scott and Hayase are perplexed as to why...

1/24/20 Jason Ditz on the Phantom Threat of Iranian Nukes

Jason Ditz discusses the latest on Iran’s nuclear weapons capabilities. Although Iran has talked about abandoning their obligations under both the JCPOA and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Ditz says they are still so far from having nukes that withdrawing from these agreements doesn’t mean they would actually get nukes. More importantly, Iran is well aware of how quickly the U.S. and its allies would come down on them if they really did try to start producing weapons. In fact the only...

1/24/20 Dave DeCamp on the OPCW’s Douma Cover-Up

Dave DeCamp talks about the scandalous apparent cover-up of the OPCW’s real findings on the alleged chemical attack in Douma in 2018. In 2019 the organization issued a final report affirming the likelihood of a real chemical attack. But now Ian Henderson, one of the engineers on the ground in Douma, has come forward to claim that his team was convinced the attack had been staged, contrary to the OPCW’s report. Henderson is quick to defend the organization’s integrity, but believes that in this...

1/24/20 Dan Caldwell on America’s Conservative Antiwar Veterans

Dan Caldwell of Concerned Veterans for America talks to Scott about his organization’s latest efforts to change the conversation about support for America’s wars in the Middle East. Their new ad campaign emphasizes the fact that even most veterans simply want to end the wars. Caldwell hopes to remind Americans that a truly conservative foreign policy would be much more restrained than the current neoconservative status quo. Discussed on the show: “End Endless Wars” (Concerned Veterans for...