JP Sottile, editor of NewsVandal.com , returns to the show to discuss his latest article, “The US Military is the biggest Big Government” entitlement program on the planet.” Sottile argues that the U.S. military has developed constituencies throughout the country by employing millions of Americans and that Donald Trump’s presidential victory was the result of paradoxically promising to grow the military and reducing U.S. intervention around the globe. (Guess which promise he kept.) Sottile then looks at American prospects for the future—whether the fall of the dollar may not come sooner than people expect, Michael Wolff’s new book and the Trump phenomenon, and whether the United States’ hard power approach to the world is being overtaken by the soft power approach of China. Finally Sottile looks forward to the coming 2018 and 2020 elections and explains why he’s optimistic that a true third party might be on the horizon.

JP Sottile is a freelance journalist, published historian, radio co-host and documentary filmmaker. He runs the site NewsVandal.com. Follow him on Twitter @newsvandal and sign up for his email list.

Discussed on the show:

• Revolution in Military Affairs
• The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives, by Nick Turse
• “The American Way of War Is a Budget-Breaker,” by William Hartung (TomDispatch.com)
• “US Soldiers Are Relying on Millions of Dollars in Food Stamps to Survive” (Truth-Out.org)
• “Give Up Your Domestic Empire or Live Under It,” by Dan Sanchez (Antiwar.com)
• “Myth-busting: Fleischer referring to “Operation Iraqi Liberation” (YouTube)
• Fire and Fury, by Michael Wolff
• “More Bombs, More Boots, More Casualties: Trump’s First Year as Commander-in-Chief” (Vice News)
• Celinda Lake
• “A foreign leader — Netanyahu — set Trump’s agenda in Middle East, Michael Wolff book says,” by Phillip Weiss (Mondoweiss.com)

Today’s show is sponsored by: NoDev, NoOps, NotIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; LibertyStickers.com; TheBumperSticker.com; 3tediting.com; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and Darrin’s Coffee.

Check out Scott’s Patreon page.

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