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Scott interviews journalist Cathy Logan and lawyer Eddie Lloyd about David McBride, the Australian whistleblower who revealed war crimes committed by Australian forces during the war in Afghanistan. McBride was just sentenced to prison. Vogan and Lloyd recount McBride’s story and then dig into the technicalities of the case.

Discussed on the show:

• “Whistleblower McBride Sentenced to 5 Yrs., 8 Mos.” (Consortium News)
• “If you’re seeing this, I’m in jail.” — McBride’s latest YouTube video
• Scott’s interview with Braden Chapman
• Scott’s interview with Ben Mckelvey

Cathy Vogan is a journalist with Consortium News. 

Eddie Lloyd is a defense attorney representing David McBride

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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David Stockman joins the show to talk about his new book, Peak Trump: The Undrainable Swamp And The Fantasy of MAGA. Stockman explains how the U.S. has painted itself into a corner with both its unwinnable wars in the middle east, and its unsustainable fiscal and monetary policy at home. Sooner or later, he says, Americans are going to pay the price for all of this.

Discussed on the show:

• Peak Trump: The Undrainable Swamp And The Fantasy Of MAGA
• Iran–Contra affair
• “The Skeptics” (The National Interest)
• Atlantic Council
• “Keynesian Myths, Monetary Central Planning and The Triumph of The Warfare State – Part 2” (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: Kesslyn Runs, by Charles Featherstone; NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1KGye7S3pk7XXJT6TzrbFephGDbdhYznTa.

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The Intercept’s Jon Schwarz joins the show to talk about Elliott Abrams, President Trump’s new pick as special envoy to Venezuela. Abrams comes from a long line of neocons with a history of supporting regime change, often resulting in massive civilian casualties and billions of U.S. dollars going to support human rights abusers beyond our borders. Schwarz fears Abrams has the same plan in mind for Venezuela.

Discussed on the show:

• “Elliott Abrams Isn’t Going to Bring “Democracy” to Venezuela” (The Intercept)
• Iran–Contra affair
• “All in the Neocon Family” (AlterNet)
• 1954 Guatemalan coup d’état
• Oslo Accords

Jon Schwarz is a writer for The Intercept, and has written for the New Yorker, the New York Times, The Atlantic, the Wall Street Journal, “Saturday Night Live,” and many others. Find him on his blog, A Tiny Revolution, or on Twitter @schwarz.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Kesslyn Runs, by Charles Featherstone; NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1KGye7S3pk7XXJT6TzrbFephGDbdhYznTa.

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Sheldon Richman comes on the show for part two of his series on the FDA’s recent moves to control tobacco products even more tightly. Not only is the agency allowed to regulate all products containing tobacco, they can now determine what constitutes a “tobacco product,” extending the definition to include things like pipes and non-tobacco nicotine replacements. Clearly, says Richman, this isn’t actually about getting people to stop smoking, because if they wanted that, they would embrace safer products like e-cigarettes instead of trying to ban them.

Discussed on the show:

• “TGIF: The FDA’s Assault on Tobacco Consumers, Part 2” (The Libertarian Institute)
• A Hobby, Not A Habit – Meditations on Pipe Smoking
• The Strange Career of Marihuana: Politics and Ideology of Drug Control in America
• Ceremonial Chemistry: The Ritual Persecution of Drugs, Addicts, and Pushers
• “Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act” (FDA)
• Death of Eric Garner
• “Vices Are Not Crimes: A Vindication Of Moral Liberty” (The Anarchist Library)
• Ruby Ridge
• Waco siege

Sheldon Richman is the executive editor of the Libertarian Institute and the author of America’s Counter-Revolution: The Constitution Revisited. Follow him on Twitter @SheldonRichman.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Kesslyn Runs, by Charles Featherstone; NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1KGye7S3pk7XXJT6TzrbFephGDbdhYznTa.

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Eric Margolis joins the show to talk about President Trump’s apparent intentions to pull U.S. troops out of Afghanistan. This idea has met with a surprising amount of pushback—somehow ending the war is seen as more shameful than the war itself. Scott and Margolis fear that no matter when the America leaves, whoever is responsible will get blamed for the inevitable chaos that ensues, just like Obama was blamed for removing troops from Iraq. There is no solution to this problem, says Margolis, other than staying in Afghanistan forever.

Discussed on the show:

• “America’s Shameful War” (The Unz Review)
• “US Senate Criticizes Trump’s Plan to Withdraw Troops from Syria, Afghanistan” (Voice of Americal)
• Freedom House
• “Life under the Taliban shadow government” (Overseas Development Institute (ODI))

Eric Margolis is a foreign affairs correspondent and author of War at the Top of the World and American Raj. Follow him on Twitter @EricMargolis and visit his website, ericmargolis.com.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Kesslyn Runs, by Charles Featherstone; NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1KGye7S3pk7XXJT6TzrbFephGDbdhYznTa.

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Scott interviews Max Blumenthal about the political unrest in Venezuela. Blumenthal explains how dangerous it is that there’s been a mostly positive, and bipartisan, response to President Trump’s comments about intervening there. Just like when he was bombing Syria, the mainstream media finally praises him for being “presidential”. But Blumenthal wants to know—how is this any different than Russia trying to interfere in our elections, which the political mainstream finds so abhorrent?

Discussed on the show:

• “The Making of Juan Guaidó: US Regime-Change Laboratory Created Venezuela’s Coup Leader” (Consortiumnews)
• “Is the US Meddling in Venezuela? Max Blumenthal Asks US Congress Members.” (YouTube)
• Sandinista National Liberation Front
• “Moderate Rebels podcast” (Free Listening on SoundCloud)
• Colour revolution
• NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR DEMOCRACY
• “The Weight of Chains” (Težina lanaca (2010) – YouTube)
• “Juan Guaidó: Venezuelans, Strength Is in Unity” (The New York Times)
• “2/1/19 Greg Palast on Avoiding Regime Change in Venezuela” (The Libertarian Institute)
• “U.S. Push to Oust Venezuela’s Maduro Marks First Shot in Plan to Reshape Latin America” (WSJ)

Director and writer of “Killing Gaza,” Max Blumenthal is a senior editor of the Grayzone Project and the author Goliath, Republican Gomorrah, and The 51 Day War. Follow Max on Twitter @MaxBlumenthal.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Kesslyn Runs, by Charles Featherstone; NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1KGye7S3pk7XXJT6TzrbFephGDbdhYznTa.

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Jason Hickel discusses the history of British colonial rule in India and his new piece, “How Britain stole $45 trillion from India.” He explains the British government’s clever scheme: forcibly extract tax revenue from the people, use the money to buy goods from other parts of India, then export the goods back to England where they can be sold for a British profit. Thanks to English economic policy, about 60 million Indians died from famine—a tragedy to rival the Holocaust or Mao’s cultural revolution.

Jason Hickel is an academic at the University of London and a fellow at the Royal Society of Arts. He is the author of The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions. Follow him on Twitter @jasonhickel.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Kesslyn Runs, by Charles Featherstone; NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1KGye7S3pk7XXJT6TzrbFephGDbdhYznTa.

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Greg Palast explains the situation in Venezuela, where the Trump administration has recently been signaling for U.S.-backed regime change. Although the claim is that it’s the U.S.’s duty to support “democracy,” says Palast, the concern is really for Venezuelan oil. Major players like the Koch brothers need reliable access to Venezuela’s particular form of heavy crude oil, and the Maduro government doesn’t play ball the way the Saudis, for example, do. Now Maduro’s political opponent, Juan Guiado, is openly calling for outside military support in his attempt to overthrow Maduro. Palast is adamant that that would be an utter catastrophe both for the U.S. and for the Venezuelan people.

Discussed on the show:

• “U.S. Push to Oust Venezuela’s Maduro Marks First Shot in Plan to Reshape Latin America” (WSJ)
• Colour revolution
• “Amanpour’s full interview with Juan Guaido” (CNN Video)
• Bay of Pigs Invasion

Investigative reporter Greg Palast covered Venezuela for BBC Television and The Guardian during Hugo Chavez’s presidency. He is the author of several York Times bestsellers including The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, now a movie available on Amazon Prime. A documentary of Palast’s work for BBC-TV, The Assassination of Hugo Chavez, is available as a free download at Palast’s site, GregPalast.com.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Kesslyn Runs, by Charles Featherstone; NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1KGye7S3pk7XXJT6TzrbFephGDbdhYznTa.

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Bonnie Kristian talks about her latest piece, “If Trump Isn’t Planning to Draw Down U.S. Intervention in Somalia, He Should Be.” She and Scott point out how President Trump often has good instincts on foreign policy, at times questioning what the U.S. is even doing in countries like Somalia, and yet other times he has no problem getting talked into more war by his generals and advisers. The hawks around him love to use the excuse that “we fight the terrorists over there so we don’t have to fight them over here,” but in reality, says Kristian, that’s pretty much the only way we could provoke an attack somewhere in the U.S., by inciting an American into retaliation because of our military’s crimes abroad.

Discussed on the show:

• “If Trump Isn’t Planning to Draw Down U.S. Intervention in Somalia, He Should Be” (Reason.com)
• Al-Shabaab (militant group)
• “Trump’s favorite general: Can Mattis check an impulsive president and still retain his trust?” (The Washington Post)
• Somali Civil War (2006–2009)
• “US forces should leave Afghanistan, even if a deal with the Taliban fails” (Defense News)

Bonnie Kristian is a fellow at Defense Priorities, and weekend editor at The Week. Her writing has appeared at TIME, CNN, Politico, The American Conservative, and many others. Follow her at her website or on Twitter @bonniekristian.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Kesslyn Runs, by Charles Featherstone; NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1KGye7S3pk7XXJT6TzrbFephGDbdhYznTa.

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