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Scott brings Mark Lynch, who’s running to take Lindsey Graham’s Senate seat, about his campaign, his motivation for running, his stance on Israel and his chances for victory.  

Discussed on the show:

• LynchForSenate.com

Mark Lynch is a Republican running for Senate in South Carolina. Learn more about him and his campaign at LynchForSenate.com.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Incorporated; Moon Does Artisan Coffee; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; Libertas Bella; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott.

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Scott talks to Ted Snider about America’s relationship with Iran and Syria. Iran has just elected a new president, Ibrahim Raisi, who Snider says is much more of a hardliner than his predecessor, Hassan Rouhani. Rouhani was the one who worked with the Obama administration on the JCPOA, so on the surface it seems that Raisi’s more obstinate stance toward the U.S. will be to America’s disadvantage. But Snider goes on to explain a bizarre dynamic that pervades American—and especially neoconservative—foreign policy: the U.S. government will push for moderate leaders in Iran, then discredit their reformist positions by betraying our agreements (as President Trump did with the JCPOA), which in turn give rise to more radical, conservative leaders in their place. And Snider suspects that this pattern is deliberate. The establishment war planners in Washington want Iran to be America’s arch-nemesis, and moderate reformers stand in the way of that portrayal. Needless to say, none of this is actually good for the American people.

Discussed on the show:

• “Why Are We Still at War with Syria?” (Antiwar.com)
• “Iran’s Election: Making Your Iranian Nightmares Come True” (Antiwar.com)
• “Why I’m Rooting for the Hardliner in Iran’s Elections” (POLITICO Magazine)
• “The Redirection” (The New Yorker)
• Going to Tehran: Why America Must Accept the Islamic Republic of Iran
  
• Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear
  

Ted Snider has a graduate degree in philosophy and writes on analyzing patterns in U.S. foreign policy and history. He is a regular writer for Truthout, MondoWeiss and antiwar.com.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State and Why The Vietnam War?, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; EasyShip; Thc Hemp Spot; Green Mill Supercritical; Bug-A-Salt; Lorenzotti Coffee; Zippix Toothpicks and Listen and Think Audio.

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Jim Bovard discusses the recent rumblings about “domestic extremism,” which the Biden administration and many Democrats have been warning is a rising problem in America. So far, Biden has only issued executive orders about so-called extremism, but some politicians are pushing for new laws that would give expanded powers to U.S. law enforcement to crack down on this alleged problem. In reality, of course, “domestic terrorism” is not a significant problem compared to the many other ills facing this country. And rest assured, Bovard says, these new powers would be used selectively by the government as yet another means of cracking down on their opposition. All right-thinking Americans—not just libertarians—should be staunchly opposed to measures like these.

Discussed on the show:

• “Biden’s Buffoonish War on Extremism” (The American Conservative)

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 and Why The Vietnam War?, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; EasyShip; Thc Hemp Spot; Green Mill Supercritical; Bug-A-Salt; Lorenzotti Coffee; Zippix Toothpicks and Listen and Think Audio.

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Kevin Gosztola is back with an update on Julian Assange and Daniel Hale, both of whom continue to languish in maximum security prisons for the “crime” of telling the people about the very real crimes of their own governments. Although a UK judge denied the U.S. extradition request in Assange’s case, she also granted the Justice Department an appeal of the decision, and ordered that Assange continue to be held until the appeal. It’s especially ironic that Assange and Hale are being held under inhumane conditions that are dangerous for their mental health, when the abysmal conditions of U.S. prisons was precisely the British judge’s reason for denying Assange’s appeal.

Discussed on the show:

• “Assange Extradition: High Court Grants US A Limited Appeal” (Shadowproof)
• “7/1/21 Bjartmar Alexandersson on the Lies of America’s Star Witness Against Julian Assange” (The Libertarian Institute)
• “The Drone Papers: Secret documents detail the U.S. assassination program.” (The Intercept)
• The Assassination Complex: Inside the Government’s Secret Drone Warfare Program
  
• “National Bird (2016)” (IMDb)
• “Kabul War Diary” (WikiLeaks)
• The Pentagon Papers

Kevin Gosztola is managing editor of Shadowproof. He also produces and co-hosts the weekly podcast, “Unauthorized Disclosure.” Follow him on Twitter @kgosztola.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State and Why The Vietnam War?, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; EasyShip; Thc Hemp Spot; Green Mill Supercritical; Bug-A-Salt; Lorenzotti Coffee; Zippix Toothpicks and Listen and Think Audio.

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Scott talks to Danny Sjursen about U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, which at the moment the Biden administration appears poised to follow through with. Sjursen is concerned about the response from the mainstream media and both party establishments—Republicans claim pulling out of Afghanistan makes America look weak; Democrats fear that pulling out will make Biden look weak politically. With this kind of bipartisan consensus, it’s extremely difficult to get things done that the establishment doesn’t like. (But it’s also a sure sign that the right thing to do is the exact opposite of whatever they both agree on.) All our time in Afghanistan, Sjursen says, hasn’t helped the people of that country, and it certainly hasn’t made Americans any safer.

Discussed on the show:

• “Spare Us an Afghan Threequel, Joe: Don’t Get Pulled Back In!” (Antiwar.com)
• “Truman As The BUTCHER of ASIA” (History News Network)
• “The Man Who Would Be King (1975)” (IMDb)
• An Enemy We Created: The Myth of the Taliban-Al Qaeda Merger in Afghanistan
  

Danny Sjursen is a retired U.S. army major and former history instructor at West Point. He is the author of Ghost Riders of Baghdad: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Myth of the Surge, Patriotic Dissent: America in the Age of Endless War and A True History of the United States: Indigenous Genocide, Racialized Slavery, Hyper-Capitalism, Militarist Imperialism and Other Overlooked Aspects of American Exceptionalism. Follow him on Twitter @SkepticalVet.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State and Why The Vietnam War?, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; EasyShip; Thc Hemp Spot; Green Mill Supercritical; Bug-A-Salt; Lorenzotti Coffee; 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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New advertiser Jared Wall joins the show to discuss his website, thchempspot.com, which offers cannabis products containing Delta-8 THC, a form of psychoactive THC that’s perfectly legal almost everywhere in the United States.

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 Andrew Cockburn about his new book, Rumsfeld: His Rise, Fall, and Catastrophic Legacy. Scott and Cockburn discuss Rumsfeld’s ascent to power through various presidential administrations, with special focus on his role in the disastrous post-9/11 terror wars. In addition to the historical events, Cockburn shares many private anecdotes about Rumsfeld’s character from those who knew him.

Discussed on the show:

• Rumsfeld: His Rise, Fall, and Catastrophic Legacy
  
• “A Letter to Paul Wolfowitz, by Andrew J. Bacevich” (Harper’s Magazine)
• “War Made Easy: How Presidents & Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death (2007)” (IMDb)
• “State Department Cables” (WikiLeaks)
• “Russia Secretly Offered Afghan Militants Bounties to Kill U.S. Troops, Intelligence Says” (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: 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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Mark Perry discusses the bizarre case of the Stryker, a vehicle used by the U.S. army to transport infantry troops to the battlefield. The Stryker, Perry explains, is a deathtrap: it isn’t heavily armored enough to stand up to real combat, it rolls over easily and it can’t withstand IEDs or tank rounds. What’s more, everyone seems to know this. And yet the Pentagon is spending nearly a billion dollars on a new contract, not to give the Stryker better armor, but to put machine guns on it. Perry describes this as putting a tourniquet on the wrong part of the body, and is emblematic of the kind of wasteful spending that has been draining America’s treasury and putting lives at risk for decades.

Discussed on the show:

• “The Stryker is a ‘deathtrap’ but you’re paying for it anyway” (Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft)
• “The Outpost (2019)” (IMDb)
• “The Pentagon Wars (TV Movie 1998)” (IMDb)

Mark Perry is the author of Talking to Terrorists: Why America Must Engage with its Enemies, The Most Dangerous Man in America: The Making of Douglas MacArthur, and The Pentagon’s Wars. Read his work at The American Conservative Magazine and follow him on Twitter @MarkPerryDC.

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 and Matthew Hoh have a wide-ranging conversation about America’s war on terrorism. The latest news is that the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan is essentially complete, with the exception of a small number of soldiers, contractors and CIA operatives ostensibly remaining behind for diplomatic purposes. Hoh is optimistic about the possibility of the American military really being finished with Afghanistan now, though he and Scott both fear that the resulting instability could be used as an excuse to lobby for continued intervention. Hoh also discusses veteran suicide rates from the post-9/11 wars, which have surged way beyond those of the general population in recent years.

Discussed on the show:

• “High Suicide Rates among United States Service Members and Veterans of the Post-9/11 Wars” (Cost of War Project)
• “The Redirection” (The New Yorker)
• No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban, and the War through Afghan Eyes
  
• “Mike Gravel and An Ongoing Road to Courage” (CounterPunch.org)
• The Pentagon Papers

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.

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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