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Tim Shorrock returns to the show to talk about the tumultuous last three months in South Korea and the potential for Trump to finally make some serious progress on relations with North Korea. They start with a look at the martial law episode that TKed South Korea last December. Shorrock explains the characters involved and lays out what’s likely to happen next. He and Scott then zoom out and think through what the Trump administration may do differently with North and South Korea this time around. 

Discussed on the show:

• Spies for Hire by Tim Shorrock

Tim Shorrock is the author of Spies For Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing and a regular contributor to The Nation and the Korea Center for Investigative Reporting. Follow him on Twitter @TimothyS.

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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Eric Brakey, former state senator from Maine and current spokesman for Young Americans for Liberty, talks about the efforts to get Defend the Guard bills into state legislatures. The Defend the Guard movement is an attempt to force congress to uphold its role in declaring war by making sure states retain control of their own national guard troops until an official declaration of war, as the constitution outlines. Of course, congress hasn’t declared a war since World War II, and is unlikely to do so with any of the current terror wars, meaning that in practice the national guard troops simply wouldn’t be available to serve overseas. Brakey is joined by Reed Cooley, Vice President of Communications at Young Americans for Liberty.

Discussed on the show:

• “Afghanistan Papers” (Washington Post)
• “Congress won’t end the wars, so states must” (The Hill)

Eric Brakey was a member of the Maine State Senate from 2014 to 2018. He has also been a candidate for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Brakey is now a senior spokesman for Young Americans for Liberty. Find him on Twitter @SenatorBrakey.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Photo IQ; Green Mill Supercritical; Zippix Toothpicks; and Listen and Think Audio.

Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

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Scott talks to Gareth Porter about the national political scene in Iran, where, in large part thanks to U.S. intervention, the population is increasingly aligning behind the most conservative forces, and moving away from President Rouhani. Iranians, Porter says, have very little trust that America will negotiate in good faith, and there is now less support than ever for the JCPOA, which the Biden administration is supposedly trying to renegotiate.

Discussed on the show:

• “Leak Exposes Fissures in Iranian Establishment and Power Shift to Hard-Liners” (Consortium News)

Gareth Porter is an investigative historian and journalist on the national security state. He is the author of Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare and, with John Kiriakou, The CIA Insider’s Guide to the Iran Crisis. Follow him on Twitter @GarethPorter and listen to Gareth’s previous appearances on the Scott Horton Show.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Photo IQ; Green Mill Supercritical; Zippix Toothpicks; and Listen and Think Audio.

Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

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Daniel Larison talks Israel-Palestine. He takes on the common straw man argument that Israel “has a right to defend itself” from the belligerence of its neighbors. In the abstract, of course, every sovereign nation should have the right to self-defense; the problem is that this argument doesn’t take any of the history of the conflict into account. The Hamas rocket attacks, Larison explains, have been a response to raids on the al-Aqsa Mosque, which were themselves a reaction to Palestinian protests in solidarity with victims of Israeli settlements. And besides, Israel only pretends that the Palestinians are “their neighbors” when there’s fighting—the rest of the time Palestine is just territory that in fact is being occupied by the Israeli government. We should always be wary of simply condemning one side, especially when one side  is so consistently mischaracterized in the mainstream media.

Discussed on the show:

• “Gaza Lives Erased: Israel Is Wiping Out Entire Palestinian Families on Purpose” (Haaretz)

Daniel Larison is a contributing editor at Antiwar.com, contributor at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and former senior editor at The American Conservative magazine. Follow him on Twitter @DanielLarison or on his blog, Eunomia.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Photo IQ; Green Mill Supercritical; Zippix Toothpicks; and Listen and Think Audio.

Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

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Hassan El-Tayyab discusses the state of the war in Yemen. The Biden administration famously announced in February that it would be ending support for Saudi “offensive operations” in Yemen, including targeting assistance and maintenance on their military equipment. In the last few days, however, the U.S. military has clarified the position: it will, in fact, still be supporting the Saudi air force in its bombing operations, seemingly the most important part of Biden’s supposed decision to stop helping them. But leaving that whole issue aside, what’s really causing the most devastation on Yemeni civilians—and especially young children—is the Saudi blockade of the Hodedah port. With the blockade in place, it has become difficult to get much-needed supplies like food and basic medicine into the country, making an already dire humanitarian crisis that much worse. The UN has estimated that 400,000 Yemeni children could starve to death in 2021, and the U.S. is poised to let it happen.

Hassan El-Tayyab is a musician and peace activist, who works as the lead lobbyist on Middle East policy for the Friends Committee on National Legislation.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Photo IQ; Green Mill Supercritical; Zippix Toothpicks; and Listen and Think Audio.

Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

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Mike Swanson gives his take on what’s in store for the U.S. economy as the covid restrictions begin to lift. Although the early economic recovery isn’t looking as rosy as some predicted, many businesses do seem to be getting back to normal as the pandemic subsides. What’s much more worrisome, says Swanson, is the sheer amount of money that the government has created over the last year. With trillions of new dollars injected into the economy, it’s impossible that we won’t see some kind of inflationary consequences sometime soon.

Mike Swanson provides investment advice at wallstreetwindow.com and is the author of The War State: The Cold War Origins Of The Military-Industrial Complex And The Power Elite. He also works with the Neopolis Media Group, a group of historians, educators, authors, researchers, and free speech advocates who endeavor to provide original and engaging content, including The Ochelli Effect, and The Lone Gunman Podcast.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Photo IQ; Green Mill Supercritical; Zippix Toothpicks; and Listen and Think Audio.

Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

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Scott talks to Max Blumenthal about the true state of affairs between Israel and Palestine, which you won’t hear about in most mainstream media sources. Although the situation is often depicted as two neighboring states engaged in a religious conflict, the truth is that the Palestinians are second-class citizens in what has become a de facto single apartheid state. The widely-publicized rocket attacks are the actions of an oppressed minority fighting back in the only way they can. Any violence against Israeli civilians is of course condemnable, but we can’t lose sight of the fact that Israel has a massive advantage in money, weapons and international support, and has been killing innocent Palestinians for decades. Scott and Blumenthal also discuss the extent to which Iran actually supports Hamas

Discussed on the show:

• Oslo Accords
• “4 Million Bullets: The Untold Fight for Survival” (IMDb)
• “Norman Finkelstein on Israel & What’s happening Here” (YouTube)
• Do you condemn the killing of Palestinian children?

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 him on Twitter @MaxBlumenthal.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Photo IQ; Green Mill Supercritical; Zippix Toothpicks; and Listen and Think Audio.

Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

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Scott interviews Ben Freeman about his research into the Saudi lobby’s activity in American politics. Freeman explains that while it’s illegal for foreign governments to donate directly to politicians in this country, it’s easy to get around these restrictions by hiring firms in the U.S. to make contributions and to lobby on behalf of governments like Saudi Arabia. Freeman has found hundreds of such filings per year, totaling tens of millions of dollars in contributions. He reminds us that all of this activity contributes to painting Saudi Arabia in a positive light while they continue to perpetrate war crimes against the people of Yemen.

Discussed on the show:

• “The Saudi Lobby in 2020” (Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative)
• “The Air Force Is Planning For a Future Without the F-22” (Defense One)

Ben Freeman is director of the Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative with the Center for International Policy. Read his work at AntiWar.com and follow him on Twitter @BenFreemanDC.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Photo IQ; Green Mill Supercritical; Zippix Toothpicks; and Listen and Think Audio.

Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

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Jim Bovard discusses the way the American surveillance state has slowly dismantled the fourth amendment, especially thanks to the FISA courts and the way they’ve enabled legal loopholes for spying on nearly any American citizen. Bovard cites interventions by the NSA and FBI as major factors in Trump’s failure to win re-election in November, and says similar activity has most likely compromised dozens of high-profile politicians in the past. All Americans should be able to agree that the intelligence apparatus is an obstacle to liberty and flourishing in this country.

Discussed on the show:

• “FISA and the Still Too Secret Police” (The American Conservative)
• “The lies and conspiracy theories from neocon ‘crazies’ that fueled Iraq war are subject of new history” (Mondoweiss)
• The Power of Positive Thinking
• “The top secret rules that allow NSA to use US data without a warrant” (The Guardian)
• “Clear and Present Danger (1994)” (IMDb)
• Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers

Jim Bovard is a columnist for USA Today and the author of Public Policy Hooligan: Rollicking and Wrangling from Helltown to Washington. Find all of his books and read his work on his website and follow him on Twitter @JimBovard.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Photo IQ; Green Mill Supercritical; Zippix Toothpicks; and Listen and Think Audio.

Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

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