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Kyle Anzalone was back on Antiwar Radio this week to talk about what’s happening in the Middle East. He gives an overview of the Iranian ballistic missile strike on Israel, the IDF’s invasion of Lebanon, the recklessness we’re seeing from Netanyahu and the pathetic submissiveness we’re seeing from the Biden Administration. They end with a quick summary of the slaughter in Gaza, which hasn’t stopped as the world’s attention shifts to Lebanon.

Discussed on the show:

• “US officials quietly backed Israel’s military push against Hezbollah” (Politico) 
• Devil’s Game by Robert Dreyfuss

Kyle Anzalone is news editor of the Libertarian Institute, opinion editor of Antiwar.com and co-host of Conflicts of Interest with Will Porter and Connor Freeman. Follow him on Twitter @KyleAnzalone_

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Roberts and Robers Brokerage Incorporated; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; Libertas Bella; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott.

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Gareth Porter discusses President Trump’s foreign policy as we near the end of his first term. The story of Trump’s time in office, as everyone knows, has been that despite his sense for the futility and unpopularity of America’s endless wars, he, like Obama before him, hasn’t been able to resist the pressures of the military-industrial complex and actually follow through with ending them. The news in Afghanistan is somewhat positive, where Trump has put Zalmay Khalilzad in charge of negotiating a U.S. withdrawal. But Porter is concerned that because there are no stipulations about peace between the Afghan government and the Taliban, any conflict between them could easily be used as an excuse for American troops to go back. In the opposite case, Trump has been absolutely horrible when it comes to Yemen, where he has helped Saudi Arabia wage a war of genocide, basically in exchange for weapons sales by American companies.

Discussed on the show:

• An Enemy We Created: The Myth of the Taliban-Al Qaeda Merger in Afghanistan
  
• “Yemen: 85,000 Children May Have Died from Starvation Since Start of War” (Save the Children)
• “Report: Strategies of the Coalition in the Yemen War” (World Peace Foundation)
• “Quiet Support for Saudis Entangles U.S. in Yemen” (The New York Times)

Gareth Porter is an investigative historian and journalist on the national security state. He is the author of Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare and, with John Kiriakou, The CIA Insider’s Guide to the Iran Crisis. Follow him on Twitter @GarethPorter and listen to Gareth’s previous appearances on the Scott Horton Show.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1Ct2FmcGrAGX56RnDtN9HncYghXfvF2GAh.

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Scott interviews David Henderson about the threat to the U.S. posed by China’s growing stature as an economic powerhouse. In general, Henderson thinks that such concerns are overblown, citing the real economic figures behind the trade relationship. In particular, he explains the way that losses from outsourcing tend to be concentrated to a few employees in a specific industry, whereas the (much larger) gains to are spread out over a whole population of consumers. This results in a skewed narrative that Americans are losing out on global trade with China. He also dispels the myth that America doesn’t produce anything anymore, explaining that we produce the same amount as ever, just with many fewer workers. Henderson and Scott go on to discuss the prospects for war between the U.S. and China, a very real and concerning threat that is mitigated, at least to some extent, by an open economic relationship between the two nations.

Discussed on the show:

• “Is China An Economic Threat?” (Hoover Institution)
• The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger
  
• Wal-Mart: A Progressive Success Story
• “TikTok Pot Luck | GoodFellows: Conversations from the Hoover Institution” (YouTube)
• “Testing the “China Shock”: Was Normalizing Trade with China a Mistake?” (Cato Institute)
• “War Made Easy: How Presidents & Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death (2007)” (IMDb)
• The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner
  
• “Special Report: Pentagon’s latest salvo against China’s growing might – Cold War bombers” (Reuters)

David R. Henderson is a Research Fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution and former professor of Economics at the Graduate School of Business and Public Policy at the Naval Postgraduate School. He is the author of The Joy of Freedom: An Economist’s Odyssey. Read his work at DavidRHenderson.com and AntiWar.com.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1Ct2FmcGrAGX56RnDtN9HncYghXfvF2GAh.

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Trevor Timm discusses an important new ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which says that the NSA’s mass data-gathering program, famously exposed by Edward Snowden, was illegal all along. It also came out during the court proceedings that not a single act of terrorism was ever prevented by the program. This ruling is a major vindication of Snowden’s decision, and may bring him one step closer to exoneration.

Discussed on the show:

• “James Clapper denies lying to Congress about NSA surveillance program” (AP News)
• “State Department Cables” (WikiLeaks)
• “Afghan War Logs” (WikiLeaks)

Trevor Timm is a co-founder and the executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation. He is a journalist, activist, and lawyer whose writing has appeared in the New York Times, The Guardian, USA Today, The Atlantic, and many others. Follow him on Twitter @trevortimm.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1Ct2FmcGrAGX56RnDtN9HncYghXfvF2GAh.

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Ramzy Baroud shares the heartbreaking story of Ahmed Amarneh, an engineer who decided to build a home for his family in a network of caves near their town after getting repeatedly denied building permits for a real house by the Israeli government. Now that he has moved his family to the caves, Israel is threatening to demolish the entire cave system. The Amarnehs are not alone, says Baroud—if anything, their story is representative of the general trend of the Israeli government using every legal means possible to prevent Palestinians from living on land that is rightfully theirs, and in many cases even trying to force them out altogether. This kind of ethnic cleansing will probably continue until the West comes to its senses and stops defending the worst of Israel’s human rights abuses.

Discussed on the show:

• “‘People of the Cave’: Palestinians Take Their Fight for Justice to the Mountains” (CounterPunch.org)
• Oslo Accords
• “8/28/20 Alan MacLeod on the Tight Relationship Between the US and Israel” (The Libertarian Institute)
• The Israel Project’s Global Language Dictionary
• “Biden forces try to debunk story that he threatened to cut aid to Israel over settlements– 38 years ago” (Mondoweiss)
• “Opinion | For Israel and Palestine, Equality in a One-State Solution” (The New York Times)

Ramzy Baroud is a US-Arab journalist and is the editor-in-chief of the Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of My Father Was A Freedom Fighter: The Untold Story of Gaza and The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story. His new book is These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons. Follow Ramzy on Twitter @RamzyBaroud and read his work at RamzyBaroud.net.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1Ct2FmcGrAGX56RnDtN9HncYghXfvF2GAh.

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Gareth Porter debunks a series of bogus incidents in which Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, has accused various Lebanese men over the years of being Hezbollah agents attempting to orchestrate terrorist plots all around the world. In each of the cases that Porter explains, false evidence for the possession of ammonium nitrate was used to sell the idea that these men were trying to make bombs. And in the wake of the recent explosion in Beirut, Israel has been selling the old narrative even harder, citing the accidental explosion as proof that Hezbollah is more active than ever.

Discussed on the show:

• After Beirut Blast, Israel Revives Tales of Hezbollah Ammonium Nitrate Terror Plots (The Grayzone)

Gareth Porter is an investigative historian and journalist on the national security state, and author of Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare. Follow him on Twitter @GarethPorter and listen to Gareth’s previous appearances on the Scott Horton Show.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1Ct2FmcGrAGX56RnDtN9HncYghXfvF2GAh.

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Scott interviews Phil Weiss about the deplorable state of the Democratic Party when it comes to Israel policy. Weiss calls Joe Biden the most pro-Israel candidate of all time, which is somewhat ironic given that he’s running against the most pro-Israel president of all time in Donald Trump. Unlike in the Republican base, where support for Israel enjoys near universal popularity, Weiss says that among Democratic voters support for Israel is actually very controversial. Generally the more establishment wing of the party, represented by candidates like Biden and Harris, is staunchly in favor of Israel, while the younger, more radical voters view Israeli occupation of Palestine as nothing short of a new apartheid. The Party may be able to hang together long enough to defeat President Trump, but Weiss predicts a major clash over this issue in the near future. Weiss feels certain that whenever the party changes its stance on Israel, Harris will be right there pretending like she’s been on board the entire time.

Discussed on the show:

• “Biden is most pro-Israel nominee ever” (Mondoweiss)
• “Biden forces try to debunk story that he threatened to cut aid to Israel over settlements– 38 years ago” (Mondoweiss)
• “The Democratic Party won’t be out-Israel’d this fall” (Mondoweiss)
• “Munich (2005)” (IMDb)
• “Jeffrey Epstein ‘Belonged to Intelligence’?” (WhoWhatWhy)

Philip Weiss is the long-time editor of Mondoweiss.net. Follow him on Twitter @PhilWeiss.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1Ct2FmcGrAGX56RnDtN9HncYghXfvF2GAh.

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Alan MacLeod discusses a recent round of bombing by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip, which as usual is either being completely ignored by mainstream media outlets, or is being described as justified retaliation for initial Palestinian aggression. MacLeod says that kind of language is consistently used by pro-Israel voices when trying to whitewash Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian people. The extent of the dissimulation is so great that most Americans have no idea whatsoever of the real state of things for Palestinians, whom Scott describes as essentially living in open-air prisons. Unfortunately there’s no end in sight for the current state of affairs, given that Trump and Biden are two of the most pro-Israel politicians of all time. No matter who wins the presidency this November, Israel is sure to come out on top.

Discussed on the show:

• “Media Show Little Interest in Israeli Bombing of Gaza” (FAIR)
• “Israeli Soldiers Placed Explosives in West Bank Village for ‘Deterrence’” (Haaretz)
• One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse
  
• “Joe Biden, the Hawk” (Jacobin)
• The Israel Project’s Global Language Dictionary

Alan MacLeod is a member of the Glasgow University Media Group. He is the author of Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent. Follow him on Twitter @AlanRMacLeod.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1Ct2FmcGrAGX56RnDtN9HncYghXfvF2GAh.

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Scott talks to Doug Bandow about the baffling failure of U.S. policymakers to learn from any of America’s recent foreign policy blunders. In particular, despite widespread consensus that the invasion of Iraq was a total calamity, politicians at the highest levels—and on both sides of the aisle—continue to advocate for the same pattern of meddlesome interference in the Middle East. During his presidential campaign, Trump occasionally said things that made it seem like he realized how foolish all of America’s recent foreign interventions have been, but during his time as president, he has fallen victim time and time again to arguments like the “safe haven myth” from those who want to keep America bogged down in these conflicts forever. Americans, says Bandow, should simply ask themselves how they would feel if another country were doing this to them, and then they will understand why the American project of policing the entire world can never succeed.

Discussed on the show:

• “Despite Military Resistance, Our Footprint In Iraq Is Finally Shrinking” (The American Conservative)
• “2/19/98 Albright Interview on the Today Show” (U.S. State Department)
• “‘We Think the Price Is Worth It’” (FAIR)

Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and a regular contributor at Forbes Magazine, the National Interest, and elsewhere. He’s on Twitter @Doug_Bandow.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1Ct2FmcGrAGX56RnDtN9HncYghXfvF2GAh.

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