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 Legion of Skanks. His debut comedy special, Libertas, reached #1 on iTunes. Follow him on Twitter...
5/7/21 Dan Cohen on Western Media Bias in Israel and Colombia
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 background that in many cases, Palestinians are just fighting back against an increasingly oppressive...
5/7/21 Kevin Gosztola on the Inhumane Treatment of America’s National Security Whistleblowers
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 Manning attempted suicide, and a specific part of the reason a British judge turned down the extradition...
5/7/21 Alfred McCoy: How Washington Lost the Ultimate Drug War
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% of the world's heroin trade. When the Taliban wiped out the drug trade in the late 90s, the...
5/7/21 Doug Bandow on the Neocon Think Tanks Keeping America at War
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 supremacy. On the other hand, there's also a huge amount of money to be made for special interest...
5/7/21 Heather Brandon-Smith on the Effort to Repeal the 2002 Iraq AUMF
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 operations. Brandon-Smith is hopeful that the Biden administration is serious about rolling back...
5/4/21 Trita Parsi: Why Mohammed bin Salman Suddenly Wants to Talk to Iran
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 wars and, above all, find a solution to the desperate humanitarian crisis in Yemen that America helped...
Latest interviews of Me
A few new ones in the last week. Despite Afghan withdrawal pledge, US may find new ways to extend the war - Aaron Matè Thought and Conduct - Beto Renteria Biden's Plan to Withdraw from Afghanistan and US Escalation with Russia - The Liam McCollum Show TheAnarchast - Patrick Smith