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...

Scott interviews Alan Macleod about all the ways the mainstream media distorts the Israel-Palestine narrative to make it seem like both sides share some of the blame for an unfortunate situation that isn't really anyone's fault. What's never explained is the fact that the supposed Palestinian territories are at this point little more than heavily-occupied refugee camps, and that attacks from the Palestinians are the predictable result of decades of Israeli aggression. Still, Scott and Macleod...

Ramzy Baroud discusses the deliberately misleading way that stories about Israel-Palestine are presented in western media. The story, he says, almost always begins with the fact that Palestinians have launched rockets at Israeli forces, or at least presents the conflict as an even fight between two neighbors, in which Israel, of course, has the right to defend its own borders. What's never explained is the fact that the supposed Palestinian territories are at this point little more than...

Scott talks to Phil Weiss about Israel-Palestine in light of the violence of the last few days. Weiss begins by pointing out that Human Rights Watch has finally declared Israel to be a single apartheid state. In other words, the two-state solution is dead, and the supposed Palestinian territories are really just occupied Israeli lands. Other human rights groups have echoed this same sentiment. The growing acknowledgement of this fact has helped to fuel recent tensions and violence, says Weiss,...

Scott talks to Dave Smith about the upcoming Pennsylvania Libertarian Party convention and the special Mises Caucus event happening in Pittsburgh the same weekend. Both Smith and Scott will be speaking this Friday, May 14th, and there will be a host of other guest appearances on Saturday. The event will be hosted at the Double Tree, Pittsburgh—don't miss out! Discussed on the show: "Take Human Action Bash" (Eventbrite) Dave Smith is the host of the podcast Part of the Problem and a member of...

Scott talks to Dan Cohen about unrest in Jerusalem, where Israeli soldiers stormed the Al-Aqsa mosque, and in Colombia, where protestors have been clashing with government forces, resulting in at least 39 civilian deaths so far. Both of these stories are perverted by most mainstream media sources in order to obscure the real story. In Israel, in this and all similar cases, the headlines invariably focus on the fact that Palestinians have attacked Israeli forces, without ever providing the...

Kevin Gosztola discusses the alarming new developments in the case of Daniel Hale, a whistleblower who helped expose the U.S. military's secret drone assassination program during the Obama administration. Because it's so easy to obtain convictions of whistleblowers, Hale recently pled guilty to one of the charges against him, hoping to receive a deal from the court. But now he's being held, mostly in solitary confinement, in the Alexandria Detention Center, the same facility where Chelsea...

Scott interviews Professor Alfred McCoy about the history of the drug trade during America's decades-long involvement in Afghanistan. Before the 1980s, McCoy explains, drugs were not a significant part of the Afghan economy—but that all changed when President Bush's CIA began arming a resistance against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. These Mujahideen fighters turned to opium for their funding, quickly growing Afghanistan's opium trade to thousands of tons a year, and accounting for 70%...

Doug Bandow discusses the creation of the Vandenberg Coalition, the latest in a long string of neocon think tanks that do little more than promote American interventionism halfway across the world. Bandow reminds us of two strong motivating factors behind this strain of foreign policy: On one hand, there really are a lot of true believers in the American empire—people who think that the U.S. military is a force for good in the world that spreads democracy and maintains relative peace through...

Scott talks to Heather Brandon-Smith of the Friends Committee on National Legislation about the effort to repeal the 2002 Iraq Authorization for Use of Military Force. Although the 2002 AUMF has been less widely cited as grounds for America's ever-expanding wars in the Middle East than the 2001 version (which authorized the war in Afghanistan), it has been used to justify the war against ISIS in Iraq and the Trump administration's assassination of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, among other...

Trita Parsi talks about the possibility of diplomatic talks between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which he views as a consequence of the Biden administration's somewhat less aggressive stance toward the Middle East. People often allege that American military involvement abroad keeps the world safer; in reality, Parsi explains, it is only when the U.S. pulls back from conflict that countries must resort instead to diplomacy. He hopes Biden will make a commitment to ending some of America's forever...

Scott talks to Tom Collina about the alarming plan to expand America's nuclear arsenal. The $2 trillion package, Collina explains, would include a large investment in what's known as the "nuclear sponge": a collection of ICBMs in America's heartland designed to draw a nuclear attack from America's enemies, rather than one targeted at Washington D.C. or other major cities. But this policy actually makes things far more dangerous, says Collina, since there's then tremendous pressure to fire...

Aisha Jumaan discusses the situation in Yemen. Although the Biden administration claimed earlier this year that it would end American support for Saudi "offensive operations" in Yemen, they have recently announced that certain support functions—like providing maintenance and spare parts for the Saudi air force—will continue. But this bald-faced reversal, says Jumaan, isn't even the main issue. Yes, the Saudis are killing innocent Yemenis in air strikes and other direct attacks, but by far the...

Scott interviews Andy Worthington about Guantanamo Bay, America's secret black site prison, where 40 men are still being held, some of them without ever having been charged with a crime. President Obama famously campaigned on closing Guantanamo, but ultimately was unable (or unwilling) to do so. President Trump, too, allowed the atrocious human rights abuses to continue throughout his administration. Worthington is optimistic about the possibility of change, but if the American people continue...

Scott talks to Dan Gifford, producer of the famous film, Waco: The Rules of Engagement, about the tragedy of the Waco siege, all the government and media lies to cover it up and what really happened behind the scenes. Gifford shares his decades of experience looking into this topic, including all the times when the government tried to shut him up. Discussed on the show: "What Really Happened At Waco And The Establishment Collusion to Cover It Up" (Dan Gifford) "Will ABC really tell us what...