Scott interviews Liam McCollum about his article arguing that Trump should endorse Defend the Guard and his recent lobbying activities related to the bill. He and Scott also talk about the property strategy for passing legislation like this in today’s political climate.

Discussed on the show:

BringOurTroopsHome.us
“Donald Trump Should Endorse the ‘Defend the Guard’ Act” (Libertarian Institute)
Video of Tim Sheehy

Liam McCollum is a student at the University of Montana’s School of Law. He is a Mises Institute Apprentice, and was previously a Hazlitt Apprentice at the Foundation for Economic Education. He is also involved in the Montana Libertarian Party, the Libertarian Party Mises Caucus. Listen to his podcast and follow him on Twitter @MLiamMcCollum

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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3/6/20 Steven Silverman on Baltimore’s $210 Million Strip Search Lawsuit

Scott talks to Baltimore lawyer Steven Silverman about a 2009 case involving the alleged illegal cavity search of his client by Baltimore police. Silverman’s client claimed that Officer Shakil Moss stopped him without cause and conducted the cavity search in public in the middle of the day, which was later confirmed through DNA analysis by the department’s internal affairs unit. It was later discovered that a group of officers conducted many such unconstitutional stops, and some of them have faced federal prison for their actions.

Discussed on the show:

“Police State Keynesianism: Stimulating Tyranny” (The Libertarian Institute)
“$210 million suit filed over police team’s strip search” (Baltimore Sun)
“Nurse says traffic stop led to strip search” (Baltimore Sun)

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.

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2/28/20 Peter Van Buren on Russiagate II and the Coronavirus Panic

Scott talks to Peter Van Buren about the resurgence of the narrative that Russia is interfering in American elections, this time in the form of apparent support both for Trump’s reelection and for Bernie Sanders to get the Democratic nomination. Van Buren notes that fortunately voters don’t seem to be buying it this time around—both Trump and Sanders’ approval ratings improved in the days following the stories about supposed Russian interference. But he warns that we should always be wary of deep state interference in electoral politics, since they do have tremendous power to disrupt things behind the scenes. He also gives his thoughts on the coronavirus, and its effect on the global economy in particular, which he says is mostly due to unfounded and irrational fear, but could be the spark that lights the fuse on the coming recession.

Discussed on the show:

Russiagate II: Return Of The Low Intelligence Zombies” (The American Conservative)
“There’s Still Little Evidence That Russia’s 2016 Social Media Efforts Did Much of Anything” (Washington Post)
“Ukraine crisis: Transcript of leaked Nuland-Pyatt call” (BBC News)
“Russia Isn’t Dividing Us — Our Leaders Are ” (Rolling Stone)
“What Mike Pence’s past says about his ability to lead on coronavirus” (Vox)
“The Democrats’ Narrative Of Gloom Won’t Fly In 2020” (The American Conservative)

Peter Van Buren worked for 24 years at the Department of State including a year in Iraq. He is the author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People and the novel Hooper’s War. He is now a contributing editor at The American Conservative magazine.

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2/27/20 Bob Murphy on the Coming Financial Crisis

Scott has Bob Murphy on the show to explain the Austrian School’s view of the boom and bust cycle in the American economy. Murphy explains why the Keynesians are wrong to assert that booms and busts are simply an inherent feature of capitalism. In fact, it is intervention in the free market by central banks—in particular the fact that they control the interest rate, which should be the free-floating price of borrowing money—that contribute to years of misallocation of resources. Eventually, there are too many investments that never should have been financed, with not enough real savings to carry them across the finish line, and business ventures start to fail en masse. Murphy and Scott explore some of the political dangers to having such a system. Notably, people who suppose that America is a laissez-faire capitalist paradise find it easy to blame the institution of capitalism when things go wrong, instead of recognizing that we already have a hugely socialized economy. Murphy works hard to persuade people of all the problems with our current system, even while things are good, so that they’ll be in a better position to understand why things really go wrong.

Discussed on the show:

“Inside Job (2010)” (IMDb)
“The Big Short (2015)” (IMDb)
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act

Bob Murphy is an economist with the Institute for Energy Research, a research fellow with the Independent Institute, and a senior fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute. He is the author of Contra Krugman: Smashing the Errors of America’s Most Famous Keynesian, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism, and Choice: Cooperation, Enterprise, and Human Action, among others. Find him on Twitter @BobMurphyEcon and listen to his podcasts, Contra Krugman and The Bob Murphy Show.

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2/21/20 Marjorie Cohn on Julian Assange’s Extradition

Marjorie Cohn discusses the attempted extradition of Julian Assange from Britain to the United States so that he can stand trial for alleged violations of America’s Espionage Act. Cohn outlines the two main grounds on which she believes the British judge should refuse to go along with the extradition: that Assange is being charged with a political crime, and that he is likely to face torture at the hands of the American authorities, much like he has been facing for years now in the form of solitary confinement and the refusal of medical care. Scott and Cohn also talk about Chelsea Manning, who is likewise being held in solitary confinement for heroically refusing to testify against Assange.

Discussed on the show:

“ASSANGE EXTRADITION: Indictment on Political Offense Runs Counter to Extradition Treaty” (Consortium News)
“Baghdad War Diary” (Wikileaks)
“The Guantanamo Files” (Wikileaks)
Collateral Murder
“«A murderous system is being created before our very eyes» – Republik” (Republik)
The United States and Torture: Interrogation, Incarceration, and Abuse

Marjorie Cohn is a professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and the author of numerous books including Drones and Targeted Killing: Legal, Moral, and Geopolitical Issues. Find all of her work at her website marjoriecohn.com.

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2/21/20 Nasser Arrabyee with an Update on the War in Yemen

Scott interviews Nasser Arrabyee about the latest on the war in Yemen. The humanitarian situation there is still desperate, with the UN finally updating its estimates to over 200,000 dead—many of these women and young children. But Arrabyee sees reasons for hope. For one thing, the war is very unpopular, both among Americans and for Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, so neither country looks very good for their participation. Arrabyee says that airports may also start to be opened to humanitarian aid soon, helping to alleviate the thousands of deaths from deprivation and preventable disease.

Nasser Arrabyee is a Yemeni journalist based in Sana’a, Yemen. He is the owner and director of yemen-now.com. You can follow him on Twitter @narrabyee.

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2/21/20 Matthew Hoh on Biden’s Pro-War Past

Scott interviews Matthew Hoh about Joe Biden’s history pushing for the war in Iraq and his subsequent attempt to whitewash this record. When Hillary Clinton faced Barack Obama in the 2008 primary, Hillary’s record in support of the war was a major factor in Obama’s victory—Hoh wishes that this time around the other Democrats would make more out of Biden’s pro-war history instead of mostly letting foreign policy go undiscussed. Even Sanders, who has been sound in his opposition to the war in Yemen, and who theoretically should be staunchly antiwar, has not made this a central aspect of his campaign. The rest of the major candidates, Hoh says, are just as bad as Biden.

Discussed on the show:

WORTH THE PRICE? Joe Biden and the Launch of the Iraq War
“THE FIX IS IN” (antiwar.com)
“How Wartime Washington Lives In Luxury” (The American Conservative)
“Coca-Cola Classic ad: ‘Mean’ Joe Greene [Full Version] (1979)” (YouTube)
“Secret Annexes Can Khalilzad Deliver Afghan Peace for Trump?” (Time)
“The Redirection” (The New Yorker)
“Iraq Has a New Prime Minister, but It Needs Regime Change to Escape Iran’s Influence” (Foreign Policy)

Matthew Hoh is a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and formerly worked for the U.S. State Department. Hoh received the Ridenhour Prize Recipient for Truth Telling in 2010. Hoh is a member of the Board of Directors for Council for a Livable World and is an Advisory Board Member for Expose Facts. He writes on issues of war, peace and post-traumatic stress disorder recovery at matthewhoh.com.

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2/21/20 Dave DeCamp on the OPCW’s Efforts to Discredit Douma Whistleblowers

Scott talks to Dave DeCamp about the OPCW’s efforts to discredit a pair of whistleblowers, both of whom are former employees who claim their findings were expunged from the organization’s official reports on the alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma in 2018. The OPCW concluded that there was clear evidence of the Assad government attacking its own civilians with chemical weapons, which was used as justification for the U.S. to launch a retaliatory strike. But these two former employees are adamant that the evidence did not point to such a conclusion—evidence that the OPCW intentionally ignored. Of course the mainstream media has covered basically none of this.

Discussed on the show:

“OPCW Tries To Discredit Whistleblowers in Response to Douma Leaks” (Antiwar.com Original)
“The OPCW and Douma: Chemical Weapons Watchdog Accused of Evidence-Tampering by Its Own Inspectors” (Counterpunch)
“Exclusive: New leaks shatter OPCW’s attacks on Douma whistleblowers” (The Grayzone)
“How John Bolton Once Threatened an International Official” (The Intercept)

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2/21/20 Sheldon Richman on the Nonintervention Principle

Sheldon Richman discusses what he calls “the nonintervention principle,” a corollary of libertarianism’s nonaggression principle. Richman says that in the face of those who advocate foreign intervention and regime change, libertarians have a tendency to deny the claims that are being used to justify the intervention, rather than categorically opposing intervention qua intervention, no matter how bad the situation is. He acknowledges that many of these arguments are sound, so far as they go—for example, the fact that Assad is actually pretty good by regional standards—but that they can give the impression that in cases where the situation actually is dire, libertarians would be okay with the proposed regime change. This is obviously not the case, and Richman reminds us that opposition to this brand of foreign policy should be based first and foremost on the philosophical stance against any kind of aggressive war, not on the particulars of the situation at hand.

Discussed on the show: