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Economist Mark Thornton of the Mises Institute returns to the show for a quick look at the state of the economy. He and Scott zoom out and try to determine where in the cycle between artificial booms and recessions we find ourselves. 

Discussed on the show:

• Anatomy of the Crash
• Extractive Psychology – Minor Issues Podcast with Mark Thornton

Mark Thornton is a senior fellow at the Mises Institute. His most recent book is The Skyscraper Curse: And How Austrian Economists Predicted Every Major Economic Crisis of the Last Century. Follow him on Twitter @DrMarkThornton 

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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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 discusses her recent articles about the U.S. military presence in Africa, which many Americans don’t even know is going on. As with many foreign policy issues, President Trump seems to have pretty good instincts on the question of American intervention in Africa, but allows himself to be bullied by the military establishment into going along with their agenda, just like every other president.

Discussed on the show:

• “Breaking: Chelsea Manning Ordered Released From Prison” (The American Conservative)
• “Baghdad War Diary” (WikiLeaks)
• “Collateral Murder” (WikiLeaks)
• “The Guantanamo Files” (WikiLeaks)
• “The State Department Cables” (WikiLeaks)
• “Why Are Americans Being Killed In Africa?” (The American Conservative)
• “Lawmakers Take A Stand: We Don’t Want Out Of Africa!” (The American Conservative)

Kelley B. Vlahos is the executive editor of The American Conservative. Follow her on Twitter @KelleyBVlahos.

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.

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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, they argue that it’s unconstitutional, citing a supreme court case from the 1990s (that doesn’t actually bear directly on McGeehan’s argument)—but of course the Defend the Guard act itself is based on a constitutional argument about Congress’ failure to declare war the way it should. McGeehan and his allies came close to passing the legislation this time around, but ultimately failed. He assures Scott that he will be back at it again next year.

Discussed on the show:

• “Defend the Guard Legislation” (Tenth Amendment Center)
• Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions
• BringOurTroopsHome.us

Pat McGeehan is a two-term representative in the West Virginia House of Delegates and a graduate of the U.S. air force academy. He is the author of Stoicism and the Statehouse. Follow him on Twitter @McGeehan4WV.

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.

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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 no coverage to this topic, despite what should be obvious interest and very high stakes.

Discussed on the show:

• “Exclusive: New OPCW whistleblower slams ‘abhorrent mistreatment’ of Douma investigators” (The Grayzone)
• “Douma Whistleblowers Respond to OPCW’s Attacks” (Antiwar.com Original)
• OPCW Douma Docs
• “Breaking: Chelsea Manning Ordered Released From Prison” (The American Conservative)

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.

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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 enough, Zunes says that Biden was actually advocating “boots on the ground” to depose Saddam Hussein before 9/11. On this issue alone, Biden should be disqualified from the presidency, and Zunes and Scott expect a poor showing in the general election, should he end up with the Democratic nomination.

Discussed on the show:

• WORTH THE PRICE? Joe Biden and the Launch of the Iraq War
• “4/26/19 Stephen Zunes on the Other Reason Biden Shouldn’t Be President” (The Libertarian Institute)
• “2/21/20 Matthew Hoh on Biden’s Pro-War Past” (The Libertarian Institute)
• Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
• “War Made Easy: How Presidents & Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death (2007)” (IMDb)
• The Burn Pits: The Poisoning of America’s Soldiers

Stephen Zunes is a professor of politics and international studies at the University of San Francisco. He is the author of Western Sahara: War, Nationalism, and Conflict Irresolution and Civil Resistance Against Coups: A Comparative and Historical Perspective. Find him on Twitter @SZunes.

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.

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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 the same problems. Instead, he says, programs like this serve two purposes. First, they are good for Putin’s domestic popularity, since he will be perceived as standing up to the Americans. Second, they are a great way to funnel money from the Russian taxpayers to Putin’s friends in the arms industry, just like American politicians do. The good news, says Cockburn, is that the world isn’t under a greater threat than before due to these weapons. The bad news is that the people of America and Russia will continue to get exploited by their governments for the benefit of special interest groups.

Discussed on the show:

• “Andrew Cockburn · Like a Ball of Fire · LRB 23 February 2020” (London Review of Books)
• “Putin Flaunted Five Powerful Weapons. Are They a Threat?” (The New York Times)

Andrew Cockburn is the Washington editor of Harper’s Magazine and the author of Kill Chain: The Rise of the High-Tech Assassins. Follow him on Twitter @andrewmcockburn.

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.

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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 legitimate, and the MIT study purports to show that he won a majority in a fair democratic election. Of course this isn’t good enough for the U.S. government, who will use the thinnest pretext to support regime change in a country that won’t go along with its agenda. Morales is currently in exile in Argentina, and it isn’t clear if he will ever be able to return to Bolivia. Scott and DeCamp also talk briefly about the latest in the OPCW Douma cover-up saga.

Discussed on the show:

• “MIT Study Finds No Evidence of Fraud in Bolivian Election that Resulted in a Coup” (Centre for Research on Globalization)
• “Top Bolivian coup plotters trained by US military’s School of the Americas, served as attachés in FBI police programs” (The Grayzone)
• State Department Cables
• “11/29/19 Jeb Sprague on the Latest Latin American Deep State Coup” (The Libertarian Institute)
• “Exclusive: OPCW whistleblowers confront leadership’s attacks, cover-up of Douma deception” (The Grayzone)

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.

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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 home, welfare-state economic policies, and “humanitarian” interventions abroad. All of this, Marcetic asserts, makes Biden the wrong candidate for today’s Democratic party. He has already faced some scrutiny from his more progressive colleagues, but Scott and Marcetic know this will only intensify if he has to face President Trump in the general election.

Discussed on the show:

• Yesterday’s Man: The Case Against Joe Biden (Amazon)
• Glass-Steagall Act
• “Law enforcement took more stuff from people than burglars did last year” (Washington Post)
• “Mike Bloomberg Exploited Prison Labor to Make 2020 Presidential Campaign Phone Calls” (The Intercept)
• Plan Colombia
• “‘Bully’ Remark Earns Biden a Lesson in Wartime Rhetoric” (The Washington Post)
• “Karl Rove says Biden is only 2020 Democrat who can defeat Trump” (Washington Examiner)

Branko Marcetic is a writer for Jacobin Magazine, a fellow at In These Times, and host of the 1/200 podcast. He is the author of Yesterday’s Man: The Case Against Joe Biden. Follow him on Twitter @BMarchetich.

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.

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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 forcing the conversation into mainstream political discourse.

Discussed on the show:

• “Veterans Group Praises Trump Peace Agreement, Chides ‘Chicken Hawk Cheney’” (Antiwar.com Blog)
• “Stop forcing U.S. troops to prop up pedophile culture” (Idaho State Journal)

Dan McKnight is the founder and Chairman of Idahoans to Bring Our Troops Home. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves, three years active duty with the U.S. Army, and ten years with the Idaho Army National Guard, including a one-year deployment to Afghanistan in 2006.

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.

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