Scott interviews Andrew Cockburn about the steady growth of unconstitutional powers that the federal government—and the president in particular—can summon during “emergencies.” Some of these powers are well-known, like extraordinary law enforcement and surveillance techniques that have been justified by the war on terror and the war on drugs. Others are more secretive, and the American public has basically no way of finding out about such powers until the government decides to use them....

Scott talks to Matt Agorist about some recent cases of unlawful police killings and police abuse in this country, both the high-profile incidents and the ones that escape mainstream notice. Agorist reminds us of the details of the Breonna Taylor case, in which police officers who were actually looking for Taylor’s ex-boyfriend fatally shot her in the middle of the night while executing a no-knock warrant. The ex-boyfriend, it turns out, had already been arrested by that point. One officer has...

Scott interviews Daniel Davis about his new book, Eleventh Hour in 2020 America, which explores the unhealthy expansion of the U.S. military over the last few decades, to the point that America’s very future as a democratic republic is at risk. Davis begins the interview by detailing how America built up its military into the world’s most efficient and advanced fighting force, epitomized by his experiences in the first Iraq War—a war that Davis calls a “success” by the military’s standards....

Scott interviews Charles Glass about Julian Assange’s extradition hearing. Glass has focused on Assange’s treatment at the hands of the U.S. and British governments and their allies, including his subjection to solitary confinement, the denial of medical treatment going back to Assange’s time in the Ecuadorian embassy and the illegal monitoring of communications with both his lawyers and his doctors. On these grounds alone, says Glass, Assange’s prosecution should be thrown out. But more...

Ray McGovern discusses the lasting impact of the “Russiagate” conspiracy, which Democrats have continued to push throughout President Trump’s entire first term. McGovern reminds us that according to recorded testimony released only this year, CrowdStrike (the technology tasked with investigating the DNC email leak) admitted all the way back in 2017 that they had no evidence for the allegation that Russian agents had perpetrated any sort of hack. That means that a narrative that has continued...

Scott talks to William Smith about the threat to republican government posed by America’s growing world empire. The founders of this country, Smith explains, knew that perpetual war would lead to the uncontrolled growth of government power, and that meddling in foreign affairs would lead to decline and ruin at home. More recently, Eisenhower warned about the same things in his celebrated military-industrial complex speech. In a recent piece, Smith warns about the use in the 2020 presidential...

Scott talks to Harry Kazianis about America’s relationship with North Korea. Kazianis argues past much of the noise surrounding the effort to get North Korea to denuclearize, proposing instead that America actually could tolerate a nuclear-armed North Korea, just like we do most of the other countries that have them. Kazianis reminds us that nuclear weapons for North Korea are primarily about survival for the Kim family; the U.S. simply does not go to war with nuclear-armed countries....

Reason Magazine’s Matt Welch follows up on Scott’s Jacob Sullum interview with his own case against Donald Trump. The clearest point to hit Trump on, says Welch, is probably his complete abandonment of curtailing government spending, as he has presided over the biggest budgets in American history. Welch also notes that despite Trump’s foreign policy rhetoric—which, he admits, has done a good job moving Republican voters toward the anti-war position—he has done fairly little to actually bring...

Reason Magazine’s Jacob Sullum discusses the case against Joe Biden, including his record on crime, the war in Iraq and the surveillance state. Sullum focuses on Biden’s history as a “tough on crime” democrat, explaining the ways Biden worked closely with senate Republicans during the 1980s to pass laws creating differential sentencing for crack and powder cocaine, establishing mandatory minimums and abolishing parole. Sullum says that Biden wanted to position himself as a moderate, who could...

Danny Sjursen explains the complicated situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, a piece of Azerbaijani territory that has been under de facto Armenian control since the 1990s. Nagorno-Karabakh is the result of Stalin’s territorial divisions, which very often failed to conform to ethnic lines, leaving an ethnic Armenian supermajority in what had become a foreign country. Both sides have fought over the territory for years, but an uneasy truce has held ever since the conclusion of a six-year war in the...

Scott interviews Andy Worthington about his testimony in Julian Assange’s extradition hearing. Worthington reminds us how important the revelations in Chelsea Manning’s Guantanamo Files leak were, stressing just how much harm has been done to the dozens of men held, and often tortured, there—including the 40 who are still detained today. Assange, says Worthington, is not a hacker or a hostile intelligence actor; he is simply a heroic journalist working to expose government crimes to the...

Scott interviews Jeffrey Kaye about his bombshell report on U.S. war crimes during the Korean War. For decades, Kaye says, the narrative advanced by America and the UN has been that although Japan, our ally, is known to have conducted experiments in chemical and biological warfare, any claims that the U.S. engaged in such activities are nothing more than communist propaganda. Even today, anyone alleging that America used such weapons in Korea is labeled a conspiracy theorist. But Kaye has now...

Scott talks to Nicolas Davies about America’s continuing role in the war in Yemen. Although the Trump administration has ended some of the more direct involvement like mid-air refueling of Saudi bombers, Saudi Arabia still very much relies on our help to wage its war against the people of Yemen, not least because of the fact that all of their weapons and equipment come from the U.S. Scott reminds us that Trump could end this war with a single phone call. Davies also describes Congress’ efforts...

Scott interviews the great Patrick Cockburn about his written testimony in Julian Assange’s extradition hearing. Cockburn argued, as have many other witnesses for the defense, that Assange’s activities with WikiLeaks amount to the very best kind of journalism: the exposure of government misdeeds to the people. Far more journalists, in fact, should be doing what Assange does. Cockburn also reminds us that the information Chelsea Manning leaked and Assange published was not even all that secret....

Kevin Gosztola discusses two major points from the recent round of testimony in the Assange hearing. First, the defense has been trying to emphasize the deplorable conditions Assange would be likely to face in an American supermax prison. This is something a judge must consider under British extradition law. Gosztola also brings up the bizarre story of UC Global, a security firm employed by American billionaire and Republican donor Sheldon Adelson. Two former UC Global employees testified that...