Download Episode.

Scott had Max Blumenthal on Antiwar Radio this week to talk about his experience reporting from the Democratic National Convention. He explains how he was able to confront so many party VIPs, the extremely disappointing foreign policy speeches, why he thinks the protests outside the convention failed and more.

Max Blumenthal is a senior editor of the Grayzone Project and the author Goliath, Republican Gomorrah and The 51 Day War. Follow him on Twitter @MaxBlumenthal.

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

Get Scott’s interviews before anyone else! Subscribe to the Substack.

Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjY

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. These problems have led to the world’s worst outbreaks of cholera, a disease that only needs basic sanitation and nutrition to treat. It would be an utter disaster if the coronavirus spreads there on top of the problems they face already.

Discussed on the show:

• “After 5 years of war in Yemen, American complicity must end” (The Hill)
• Stockholm Agreement
• “Senate Passes Sanders’ War Powers Resolution on Yemen” (Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont)
• “3/20/20 Scott Paul on Yemen’s Ongoing Humanitarian Crisis” (The Libertarian Institute)

Hassan El-Tayyab is a musician and peace activist based in Chicago. Find his work at justforeignpolicy.org.

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: 1KGye7S3pk7XXJT6TzrbFephGDbdhYznTa.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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 countries, and more dead American soldiers. All of this has cost the American people trillions of dollars and is likely to lead to worse problems than the ones we initially tried to solve. Bacevich hopes that a crisis like coronavirus, which exposes the fragility of our economy and our society, might finally force people to recognize how untenable the entire empire project is.

Discussed on the show:

• “Tomgram: Andrew Bacevich, America Terrorized” (TomDispatch)
• 1993 World Trade Center bombing
• U.S. embassies in East Africa bombed
• Khobar Towers bombing
• BringOurTroopsHome.us

Andrew Bacevich is a Professor Emeritus of International Relations and History at Boston University. He is the author of a number of books including America’s War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History and The Age of Illusions: How America Squandered Its Cold War Victory. He is a regular contributor at The American Conservative and TomDispatch.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: 1KGye7S3pk7XXJT6TzrbFephGDbdhYznTa.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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 to roll back the increased powers that the federal government is deploying, supposedly to combat the spread of the virus, like tracking our cell phones and enforcing shelter in place orders. In both these cases, the cure could be worse than the proverbial disease.

Discussed on the show:

• “Liberty And The Coronavirus: Not An Either/Or Proposition” (The American Conservative)

Ted Galen Carpenter is a senior fellow for defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute. Carpenter has written 10 books including America’s Coming War with China: A Collision Course over Taiwan and most recently NATO: Dangerous Dinosaur. He is a contributing editor at The American Conservative Magazine and the National Interest.

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: 1KGye7S3pk7XXJT6TzrbFephGDbdhYznTa.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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 build friendships over a shared interest.

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: 1KGye7S3pk7XXJT6TzrbFephGDbdhYznTa.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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 almost never borne out in practice, and simply hurts thousands of innocents while the elites remain more or less untouched.

Discussed on the show:

• “Hawkish Group Targets Medicine Sales to Iran Amid Coronavirus Crisis” (The Intercept)
• “Collective punishment has always been the stated goal of Iran sanctions hawks” (Responsible Statecraft)

Eli Clifton is a reporting fellow with The Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute and a contributing editor for Lobe Log. Follow him on Twitter @EliClifton.

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: 1KGye7S3pk7XXJT6TzrbFephGDbdhYznTa.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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 put American troops in unnecessary danger. The safest thing for these soldiers, and for the rest of the country, would be to end all hostilities and bring everyone home.

Discussed on the show:

• “US Beats War Drums in Middle East” (Antiwar.com Original)
• “How To Lose An Army” (The American Conservative)

Reese Erlich is a freelance journalist who has reported from the Middle East for decades. His nationally distributed column, Foreign Correspondent, appears every two weeks. He is the author of The Iran Agenda Today: the Real Story of U.S. Policy and the Middle East Crisis. Find him on Twitter at @ReeseErlich or at his website.

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: 1KGye7S3pk7XXJT6TzrbFephGDbdhYznTa.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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 citizens.

Discussed on the show:

• “Police Stole $225k in Cash and Coins, and the Courts Said “Okay”” (Institute for Justice)
• “Tamir Rice’s Basically Reasonable Murder” (Simple Justice)

Patrick Jaicomo is an attorney with the Institute for Justice. You can follow his work on Twitter @pjaicomo.

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: 1KGye7S3pk7XXJT6TzrbFephGDbdhYznTa.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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 the central planners understand, he explains, is to pump more money into the financial markets, which provides the illusion of short term relief at the expense of real long term damage. The current stimulus will only inflate asset bubbles even further and eventually bring about an even worse crash. All of this, of course, will be blamed on free market capitalism, which is the system most people think we have. Such a backlash is likely to lead to even greater socialization of our government and economy.

Discussed on the show:

• “The Money Printing Gods Have Failed!” (David Stockman’s Contra Corner)

David Stockman is the ultimate Washington insider turned iconoclast. He began his career in Washington as a young man and quickly rose through the ranks of the Republican Party to become the Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan. After leaving the White House, Stockman had a 20-year career on Wall Street. He is the author of Trumped!, The Triumph of Politics, and his history of the financial crisis, The Great Deformation: The Corruption of Capitalism in America.

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: 1KGye7S3pk7XXJT6TzrbFephGDbdhYznTa.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download